Abstract

This aim was to examine differences on lumbar lordosis and thoracic kyphosis in standing position by gender, age and weight status in healthy subjects using a noninvasive method. A total of 297 women (36.6 +/- 7.3 years) and 362 men (39.8 +/- 7.5 years) participated in this study. Participants were categorized according to the international BMI (kg/m(2)) cut-off points. Age was stratified by ten years increments starting from 20 y. Men showed smaller lumbar lordosis (17.3 +/- 9.3) and larger thoracic kyphosis (42.8 +/- 8.8 degrees) than women (29.6 +/- 11.3 and 40.4 +/- 9.5 degrees respectively; both p .001). Older groups presented smaller lumbar lordosis and larger thoracic kyphosis values compared with the 20-29 y group (20.9 +/- 10.4, 20.8 +/- 11.2 and 23.6 +/- 12.6 degrees for >= 50, 40-49 and 30-39 y, respectively vs. 26.7 +/- 12.2 degrees for 20-29 y in lumbar lordosis and 42.6 +/- 9.8, 42.61 +/- 8.7 and 41.8 +/- 8.9 degrees for >= 50, 40-49 and 30-39 y, respectively vs. 37.5 +/- 10.9 degrees for 20-29 y in thoracic kyphosis; both p .05). Finally, overweight and obese groups showed smaller lumbar lordosis (19.4 +/- 11.1 and 20.9 +/- 11.8 degrees respectively) and larger thoracic kyphosis values (42.7 +/- 8.9 and 42.8 +/- 9.4 degrees respectively) compared with nonoverweight participants (25.1 +/- 12.4 and 40.6 +/- 9.2 degrees for lumbar lordosis and thoracic kyphosis respectively; all p .05). However, when gender, age and weight status were take into account all together only gender seems to influence the lumbar lordosis curvature. The results of this study suggest that gender could be the only determinant factor of lumbar lordosis in healthy people.