The Measurement and Analysis of Chinese Adults’ Range of Motion Joint

Abstract

AbstractThere have been many studies on range of motion (ROM) of joint at home and abroad, but they were generally measured on a certain age group, a certain group of people, and a certain area. So far, no large-scale measurement research on Chinese adults has been carried out systematically. Based on the regional characteristics of China, this study selected three places of Hangzhou, Xi'an, and Dalian as sampling points, and 818 Chinese adults’ data of ROM were collected whose age ranged from 18 to 67 years old. And their careers involved university teachers, staff, undergraduate students, graduate students, farmers, workshop workers, etc. Forty parameters of ROM were measured including shoulder, elbow, wrist, fingers, neck, spine, hip, knee, ankle, etc. After analyzing the effects of age, gender, BMI index, region and labor intensity to the ROM, it was found that the most females’ ROM were larger than males’. In generally, female’s neck, wrist, hip, shoulder, ulna and finger joints were more flexible than male’s. There was no obvious difference in flexibility between men and women about spine thoracolumbar, elbow, knee and ankle joints. The effect of age on ROM was more obvious. The overall trend was that the ROM decreased with age, and the smallest reduction was hip adduction, by 2.1%, and the largest reduction was wrist radial flexion, by 25.2%. The smallest degree reduction also was hip adduction (0.6°), and the largest was wrist flexion (13.2°). Among the 40 parameters measured, 33 parameters decreased with the increase of BMI index. The largest decrease was elbow extension (29.1%), and the smallest decrease was shoulder abduction (2.7%). The ROM of each joint varied greatly in different regions, ranging from 2° to 19.4°. The smallest was shoulder abduction (2°), and the largest was shoulder internal rotation (19.4°). By analyzing the data of subjects with different labor intensity, it could be found that as the labor intensity increase, the ROM become smaller.KeywordsRange of motion (ROM)AdultGenderAgeBMIRegionLabor intensity