Rehab Centers: The Impact of Obesity on Back and Core Muscular Endurance in Firefighters.

The impact of obesity on back and core muscular endurance in firefighters.

Filed under: Rehab Centers

J Obes. 2012; 2012: 729283
Mayer JM, Nuzzo JL, Chen R, Quillen WS, Verna JL, Miro R, Dagenais S

The purpose of this study was to assess the relationships between obesity and measures of back and core muscular endurance in firefighters. Methods. A cross-sectional study was conducted in career firefighters without low back pain. Obesity measures included body mass index (BMI) and body fat percentage assessed with air displacement plethysmography. Muscular endurance was assessed with the Modified Biering Sorensen (back) and Plank (core) tests. Relationships were explored using t-tests and regression analyses. Results. Of the 83 participants enrolled, 24 (29%) were obese (BMI ? 30). Back and core muscular endurance was 27% lower for obese participants. Significant negative correlations were observed for BMI and body fat percentage with back and core endurance (r = -0.42 to -0.52). Stepwise regression models including one obesity measure (BMI, body fat percentage, and fat mass/fat-free mass), along with age and self-reported physical exercise, accounted for 17-19% of the variance in back muscular endurance and 29-37% of the variance in core muscular endurance. Conclusions. Obesity is associated with reduced back and core muscular endurance in firefighters, which may increase the risk of musculoskeletal injuries. Obesity should be considered along with back and core muscular endurance when designing exercise programs for back pain prevention in firefighters.
HubMed – rehab

 

Quality of Life and Unmet Need in People with Psychosis in the London Borough of Haringey, UK.

Filed under: Rehab Centers

ScientificWorldJournal. 2012; 2012: 836067
Lambri M, Chakraborty A, Leavey G, King M

Objectives. Deinstitutionalization of long-term psychiatric patients produced various community-based residential care facilities. However, inner-city areas have many patients with severe mental illness (SMI) as well as deprivation, unemployment, and crime. This makes meeting their community needs complex. We undertook a needs assessment of service provision and consonance between service users’ evaluation of need and by care workers. Design. Cross-sectional study with random sample of SMI service users in four housing settings: rehabilitation units; high-supported; medium-supported; low-supported housing. Setting. London Borough of Haringey. Outcome Measures. 110 SMI service users and 110 keyworkers were interviewed, using Camberwell Assessment of Need; SF-36; Lancashire Quality-of-Life profile; demographic and clinical information. Results. People in “low-support” and “high-support” housing had similar symptom scores, though low support had significantly lower quality of life. Quality of life was positively predicted by self-reported mental-health score and negatively predicted by unmet-need score in whole sample and in medium-support residents. Residents’ and care-workers’ assessments of need differed considerably. Conclusions. Although patients’ housing needs were broadly met, those in low-supported housing fared least well. Attendance to self-reported mental health and unmet social needs to quality of life underpins planning of residential services for those with SMI. Social and personal needs of people in supported housing may be underestimated and overlooked; service providers need to prioritise these if concept of “recovery” is to advance.
HubMed – rehab

 

Abnormalities in the fiber composition and capillary architecture in the soleus muscle of type 2 diabetic goto-kakizaki rats.

Filed under: Rehab Centers

ScientificWorldJournal. 2012; 2012: 680189
Murakami S, Fujita N, Kondo H, Takeda I, Momota R, Ohtsuka A, Fujino H

Type 2 diabetes mellitus is linked to impaired skeletal muscle glucose uptake and storage. This study aimed to investigate the fiber type distributions and the three-dimensional (3D) architecture of the capillary network in the skeletal muscles of type 2 diabetic rats. Muscle fiber type transformation, succinate dehydrogenase (SDH) activity, capillary density, and 3D architecture of the capillary network in the soleus muscle were determined in 36-week-old Goto-Kakizaki (GK) rats as an animal model of nonobese type 2 diabetes and age-matched Wistar (Cont) rats. Although the soleus muscle of Cont rats comprised both type I and type IIA fibers, the soleus muscle of GK rats had only type I fibers. In addition, total SDH activity in the soleus muscle of GK rats was significantly lower than that in Cont rats because GK rats had no high-SDH activity type IIA fiber in the soleus muscle. Furthermore, the capillary diameter, capillary tortuosity, and microvessel volume in GK rats were significantly lower than those in Cont rats. These results indicate that non-obese diabetic GK rats have muscle fiber type transformation, low SDH activity, and reduced skeletal muscle capillary content, which may be related to the impaired glucose metabolism characteristic of type 2 diabetes.
HubMed – rehab

 


 

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