Mallette Matt M, Gur-Arie Nathaniel, Gerrett Nicola
Integrative Human Research Lab, Gentherm, 38455 Hills Tech Dr., Farmington Hills, MI 48331, USA.
Bioengineering (Basel). 2024 Oct 18;11(10):1040. doi: 10.3390/bioengineering11101040.
Lower back pain (LBP) is one of the most prevalent health losses in adults worldwide. Historically, heat has been successfully used for treating pain and relieving tight muscles. Given the effective contact with the occupant's back and proximity to the heat source, coupled with increasing commute times, automotive seats offer an opportunity to intervene. Fifteen adults (nine female) who experienced acute, subacute, and chronic lower back pain were recruited to examine the effectiveness of heat delivered to the lower back in providing temporary pain relief. Participants sat in a car seat for 38 min on two days, which included a 5-min baseline followed by a 33-min intervention; control, or localized. For the control condition, participants sat for 33 min without any thermal devices on, while the localized condition heated and maintained the seat surface temperature of the lower seat back area to ~45 °C. Over the 33-min control condition, the back skin temperature increased by ~1-2 °C and did not impact the subjective LBP. Heating the lower back for 33 min to ~39 °C reduced the subjective LBP by 10%. We demonstrated that lower back pain can be alleviated from an automotive seat providing heat to the lower back within normal commute times in those with lower back pain.
下背痛（LBP）是全球成年人中最常见的健康问题之一。从历史上看，热疗已成功用于治疗疼痛和缓解肌肉紧张。考虑到与乘坐者背部的有效接触以及与热源的接近程度，再加上通勤时间的增加，汽车座椅提供了一个干预的机会。招募了15名患有急性、亚急性和慢性下背痛的成年人（9名女性），以研究向下背部提供热量在提供临时疼痛缓解方面的有效性。参与者在两天内坐在汽车座椅上38分钟，其中包括5分钟的基线期，随后是33分钟的干预期；对照或局部加热。在对照条件下，参与者在没有任何热装置的情况下坐33分钟，而在局部加热条件下，加热并将座椅靠背下部区域的表面温度维持在约45°C。在33分钟的对照条件下，背部皮肤温度升高约1-2°C，且对主观下背痛没有影响。将下背部加热33分钟至约39°C可使主观下背痛降低10%。我们证明，对于患有下背痛的人来说，在正常通勤时间内，为下背部提供热量的汽车座椅可以缓解下背痛。
