身長, 指極, 胸腰椎可動度からの老化度の疫学的評価について (第2報)

職業別老化度の比較

抄録

A statistical study was made of the senility of those engaged in three different types of occupation by measuring their body height, arm span, body height/arm span ratio and mobility of thoraco-lumbar spine. The subjects of the study were 323 males and 305 females engaged in fishery (primary industry), 382 males and 731 females engaged in farming (primary industry), and 366 male and 207 female industrial workers (secondary and tertiary industries) . The results obtained were as follows.
1. The body height of males was greater than the national average in the fisherman and industrial worker groups but smaller in the farmer group. The shortening of body height due to aging after 40 was gradual in the fisherman group but remarkable in the farmer and industrial worker groups. The body height of females was smaller than the national average in all the three groups up to the age of 40, but after that age, it was greater than the average in the fisherman group and almost identical to it in the industrial worker and farmer groups. Arm span showed the same tendency as body height in both males and females. However, the reduction of arm span due to aging was less than half that of body height.
The body height/arm span ratio which is considered as an index of the shortening of body height due to aging was alike among the three groups in both males and females up to the age of 40. At greater ages the ratio was maintained highest in the fisherman group, suggesting that the shortening of body height due to aging was smaller in the fisherman group than in the other occupation groups.
2. Various scores of mobility of thoraco-lumbar spine showed changes with age corresponding to their respective characteristics. Generally, there was a tendency that the scores were highest and the changes with age were smallest in the fisherman group. Difference by occupation was noted in the range of total flexion-extension and maximal extension ; particularly the range of maximal extention for both males and females was highest in the fisherman group, lowest in the farmer group and medium in the industrial worker group, indicating difference by occupation most remarkably.
3. No significant relationship was observed between the body height/arm span ratio as an index of the shortening of body height and the mobility of thoracolumbar spine in any of the three groups for either males or females under 40. However, a positive correlation was noticed at ages greater than 40. Although there was in each test item some difference between males and females, the correlation. ship at advanced ages was generally lowest in the fisherman group and highest in the farmer group.
4. In view of the above findings, the shortening of body height due to aging and the reduction of mobility of spine at advanced ages were smallest in the fisherman group, and it may well be said that the occurrence of senility in the fisherman group is more delayed than in the other occupation groups. The relation of the shortening of body height with the reduction of mobility of thoraco-lumbar spine, particularly of the range of maximal extension, was most remarkable in the farmer group, suggesting that premature senility in terms of mobility of spine occurs earliest in those engaged in farming. It is desired to take the sort of physical exercise that stresses the flexibility of the spine for a prevention against senility.