Golf posture and its relationship to low back pain

Introduction . Golf is a very popular sport, with more than 55 million players around de world (Murray et al., 2016) and its reintroduction to the 2016 Summer Olympics in Brazil expected to raise interest in the game even more, especially in the developing world (Humphreys, 2018). Low back pain has long been associated with golf, being the most frequent condition among golfers, responsible for 18% to 54% of reported ailments (Lindsay & Vandervoort, 2014). Previous literature considers golfers’ posture as a factor related to low back pain (Lindsay & Vandervoort, 2014; Reider, Provencer, & Davis, 2015, p. 490; Murray et al., 2017), which has inspired development of new technologies for its control (Caya, Sejera, Deriquito, Losaria, & Manzano, 2018). Based on the available evidence and practice experience, the Titleist Performance Institute (TPI) lists golf posture among most common swing faults in golfers (Gulgin, Schulte, & Crawley, 2014). Nevertheless, there is still no evidence linking specific golf postures to low back pain (Smith, Hawkins, Grant-Beuttler, Beuttler, & Lee, 2018). Methods . An observational cross-sectional study of 165 golfers between 13 and 72 years of age, who participated in an open golf tournament at Quito Tennis and Golf Club in Quito, Ecuador, was conducted. The golfers’ period prevalence and intensity of low back pain were assessed with the use of a structured questionnaire, and golf posture, classified as neutral or N-posture, C-posture, or S-posture, was determined at set-up based upon video recordings and software photo analysis according to the TPI common swing faults (Gulgin et al., 2014; Liew & Tripp, 2016). Results . 22% of golf players had N-posture at set-up, while 49% had S-posture and 29% had C-posture. 43% of players with N-posture, 48% of players with S-posture, and 53% of players with C-posture reported lumbar pain in the last 12 months (p = 0.66). Reported average pain intensity during the last 3 months on a 10-point numeric pain rating scale was [mean (SD)]: 3.8 (2.0) for players with N-posture, 4.1 (1.5) for players with S-posture, and 4.0 (1.9) for those with C-posture (p = 0.87). Conclusion . Our study results did not permit to prove association between golf posture at set-up and low back pain prevalence and intensity in golf players based on our sample. Consent . Written informed consent was obtained from all study participants. The images that appear in the poster are of the first author (GV), who confirms his permission to use the images in the presentation. Acknowledgement . We would like to thank members of the Ecuador Golf Federation who contributed to this study. REFERENCES Caya, M. V. C., Sejera, M. P., Deriquito, J. P. P., Losaria, N. F. F., & Manzano, M. J. C. (2018). Golfer body posture monitoring using e-Textile technology. In Proceedings of 2018 3rd International Conference on Computer and Communication Systems (ICCCS 2018) (pp. 402-405). Nagoya, Japan: IEEE Press. doi: 10.1109/CCOMS.2018.8463230 Gulgin H. R., Schulte B. C., & Crawley A. A. (2014). Correlation of Titleist Performance Institute (TPI) level 1 movement screens and golf swing faults . Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research , 28 (2), 534-539. doi: 10.1519/JSC.0b013e31829b2ac4 Humphreys, C. (2018). Sports tourism: Golf. In S. Agarwal, G. Busby, & R. Huang (Eds.), Special interest tourism: Concepts, contexts and cases (pp. 112-122). Wallingford, Oxfordshire, UK: CAB International. Liew, X. Y. & Tripp, B. (2016). A case series: The Body Swing Connection: Physical functional movement vs. injuries and kinematic factors in competitive golfers. International Journal of Golf Science , 5 (Suppl.), S45-S47. doi: 10.1123/ijgs.2016-0015 Lindsay, D. M., & Vandervoort, A. A. (2014). Golf-related low back pain: a review of causative factors and prevention strategies. Asian Journal of Sports Medicine , 5 (4), e24289. doi: 10.5812/asjsm.24289 Murray, A. D., Daines, L., Archibald, D., Hawkes, R. A., Schiphorst, C., Kelly, P., Grant, L., & Mutrie, N. (2016). The relationships between golf and health: a scoping review. British Journal of Sports Medicine , 51 (1), 12-19. doi: 10.1136/bjsports-2016-096625 Reider, B., Provencer, M. T., & Davis, G. J. (2015). Orthopaedic rehanbilitation of the athlete: Getting back in the game . Philadelphia, PA: Elsevier/Saunders. Smith, J. A., Hawkins, A., Grant-Beuttler, M., Beuttler, R., & Lee, S. P. (2018). Risk factors associated with low back pain in golfers: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Sports Health , 10 (6): 538-546. doi: 10.1177/1941738118795425