Two hundred and ninety-two male workers of 19 to 62 years of age in a factory (named K) manufacturing engines in the suburbs of Nagasaki City were investigated on their physique and flexibility of the lumbal vertebra, and at the same time a questionnaire survey on lumbago was performed on the same subjects. The following results were obtained.
1) The average values of height and body weight in K factory workers were mucn the same as those in other kinds of industry workers and the reported average values of Japanese people. On the other hand, it was found that height and body weight of industrial workers in the past twenty years as reported by others showed remarkable increase in agreement with the increase of average height and body weight of general population in Japan.
2) In K factory, body weight and its ratio to standard body weight, skinfold thickness and body fat weight estimated from the thickness, and Rohrer's Index of the office workers were higher than those of the plant workers, and this difference was more remarkable in workers over 30 years of age.
3) The flexibility of the lumbal vertebra was determined by the difference between maximum ventral and dorsal flextions, which were measured with a spinometer designed by Iino. The flexibility of the lumbal vertebra of the K factory workers, as expressed by the index figure against the value of 100 in 20 years of age was lower than those of fishermen and farmers and nearly the same as those of dock yard workers. The flexibility of the groups of fishermen, farmers and dock yard workers was already reported by Nakamura.
The lowering of flexibility of the lumbal vertebra according to aging seems to be more remarkable in the K factory workers and dock yard workers than in fishermen and farmers.
4) In the K factory subjects, there was a significant difference in the flexibility of the lumbal vertebra between those who belong to farms and those who do not. The condition whether they have been living in farms or not may make such a difference but it leaves room to further investigations.
The flexibility of the lumbal vertebra in the subjects over 30 years of age was significantly higher in those who used to take exercise during free time (sportsmen) than in those who did not (non-sportsmen).
5) The results of the questionnaire survey on lumbago were as follows : The prevalence rate of the complainants of lumbago was increasingly marked according to aging. The percentage of the complainants was 58.4 % in the plant workers and 52.1 % in the office workers. It was higher in the subjects who do not belong to farms than those who do, and also it was higher in non-sportsmen than in sportsmen. There was no relationship between flexibility of the lumbal vertebra and lumbago.
抄録全体を表示