Author(s)

Kanae Oda, Nobuyuki Miyatake, Noriko Sakano, Takeshi Saito, Akihiko Katayama, Kenji Nishii, Takeyuki Numata

Department of Hygiene, Faculty of Medicine, Kagawa University, Kagawa, Japan.
Okayama Health Foundation Hospital, Okayama, Japan.
Okayama Southern Institute of Health, Okayama Health Foundation, Okayama, Japan.

To investigate the link between cigarette smoking and flexibility in the Japanese population, we used data of 4234 men and 9169 women, aged 20-79 years, in this cross-sectional investigation study. Flexibility such as sit and reach were measured. In addition, habits of cigarette smoking and exercise were obtained by well-trained medical staff. The effect of cigarette smoking on flexibility was evaluated. A total of 1613 men (38.1%) and 995 women (10.9%) were having habits of cigarette smoking. Flexibility in men was decreased with aging and that in women increased with aging under 60’s. Flexibility in subjects with cigarette smoking was significantly lower than that in subjects without cigarette smoking even after adjusting for age and exercise habits in both sexes. Cigarette smoking might be modifiable factor of flexibility in the Japanese.

Cigarette Smoking; Flexibility; Exercise Habits

Oda, K. , Miyatake, N. , Sakano, N. , Saito, T. , Katayama, A. , Nishii, K. and Numata, T. (2012) The effect of cigarette smoking on flexibility in Japanese. Health, 4, 570-573. doi: 10.4236/health.2012.49089.