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Objectives. This study aimed to investigate 12-month and 7-day prevalence of musculoskeletal symptoms among workers of the pulp and paper industry, and assess the contribution of age, gender, body mass index (BMI) and physical activity (PA). Methods. The sample comprised 904 workers. Musculoskeletal symptoms were assessed using the Nordic musculoskeletal questionnaire. χ2 tests assessed the association between musculoskeletal symptoms and age/gender/BMI/PA, and multivariate logistic regression models predicted the 12-month occurrence of symptoms in the five most prevalent regions. Results. The five most affected body regions were the lower back, shoulders, neck, knees and wrists/hands. Older workers presented more symptoms in all body regions, except dorsal; female gender was associated with neck symptoms (p = 0.001); overweight was associated with a higher prevalence of lower back (p = 0.01), knee (p = 0.017) and ankle/foot (p = 0.037) symptoms; and a moderate PA level was associated with thigh/hip symptoms (p = 0.006). Age was a significant predictor in all five most affected regions; gender was a significant predictor for shoulders, neck and wrists/hands; and BMI was a significant predictor for lower back symptoms. Conclusion. The 12-month and 7-day prevalence of musculoskeletal symptoms among workers of the pulp and paper industry is higher in the lower back, shoulders, neck, knees and wrists/hands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: To evaluate the influence of different durations of lower limb static stretching (SS) on the performance of long jump (LJ) athletes. Methods: A crossover randomized controlled trial was conducted with 20 athletes, submitted to 4 conditions: 3 experimental conditions, performing the usual warm-up plus SS of quadriceps, hamstrings, gastrocnemius and tibialis anterior during 30 s, 1 min or 3 min; and a control condition, of only the usual warm-up. LJ performance was assessed before and immediately after the interventions/control. Results: There was a significant change after the 3 min SS, with an improvement in the distance achieved (p = 0.012). However, there were no differences between the 4 conditions (p = 0.154). Conclusion: Results suggest that SS performed for 30 s, 1 min or 3 min, seem not to influence the LJ performance, since despite an improvement in the distance reached after the 3 min SS, there were no significant differences between conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Different factors have been put forward as positive or negative influences on the knee joint position sense; however, the effects of hamstring flexibility have not been the object of extensive research. Objective: To study the influence of hamstring flexibility on the knee joint position sense. Methods: The knee joint position sense of 31 adults was tested actively to extension to a 45° range of knee flexion, in both the dominant and non-dominant limb. Hamstring flexibility was assessed through the sit and reach test. Based on the results, participants were divided into high and low flexibility categories. Intergroup analysis and tests of the association between flexibility and repositioning errors were performed. Results: No significant differences were found between the two categories of flexibility and repositioning accuracy. Similarly, no significant associations were found between flexibility and repositioning errors (p>0.05). Conclusions: These results suggest that hamstring flexibility does not affect knee repositioning accuracy, implying that both lower and higher flexibility do not impair the knee joint position sense. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]