A Study on Range of Joint Movement for Korean Adults

Abstract

This study was performed to determine the voluntary range of movements for Korean adults at the age between 18 and 60. Three hundred and eighteen males and 260 females participated for this study. Twenty-seven body movements at various joints were conducted to measure the range of movements. Subjects were grouped by age into three to analyze the differences of range of movements due to the aging. The age ranged for the first group was from 18 to 29. The second group ranged from 30 to 39, and the last group ranged from 40 to 60. The data were also analyzed to see the differences of range of movements between sexes. The results show that female subjects have larger range of movements than male subjects in hip movement (hip adduction and abduction), knee movement (knee rotation medial and lateral), neck movement (right flexion, dorsal flexion, right rotation), wrist movement (wrist extension and adduction), elbow flexion and shoulder extension (p<0.05). On the other hand, male subjects have larger range of movements than female subjects in wrist abduction, wrist flexion, forearm supination, shoulder rotation (lateral), shoulder adduction, knee flexion (standing), ankle flexion, hip flexion, and hip rotation medial (sitting). (p<0.05). Generally, the range of movements decrease with ages, however, some range of joint movements such as wrist flexion and extension show increase with ages for both male and female subjects. To apply these data in designing products or workplace, the designers may need serious consideration to the limiting factor of incidence of arthritis due to the aging.