Enthesopathies as occupational stress markers: evidence from the upper limb.
Am J Phys Anthropol
; 142(2): 224-34, 2010 Jun.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-20034011
ABSTRACT
Enthesopathies--that is, "musculo-skeletal stress markers"--are frequently used to reconstruct past lifestyles and activity patterns. Relatively little attention has been paid in physical anthropology to methodological gaps implicit in this approach:
almost all methods previously employed neglect current medical insights into enthesopathies and the distinction between healthy and pathological aspects has been arbitrary. This study presents a new visual method of studying fibrocartilaginous enthesopathies of the upper limb (modified from Villotte Bull Mém Soc Anthropol Paris n.s. 18 (2006) 65-85), and application of this method to 367 males who died between the 18th and 20th centuries, from four European identified skeletal collections the Christ Church Spitalfields Collection, the identified skeletal collection of the anthropological museum of the University of Coimbra, and the Sassari and Bologna collections of the museum of Anthropology, University of Bologna. The analysis, using generalized estimating equations to model repeated binary outcome variables, has established a strong link between enthesopathies and physical activity men with occupations involving heavy manual tasks have significantly (P-value < 0.001) more lesions of the upper limbs than nonmanual and light manual workers. Probability of the presence of an enthesopathy also increases with age and is higher for the right side compared with the left. Our study failed to distinguish significant differences between the collections when adjusted for the other effects. It appears that enthesopathies can be used to reconstruct past lifestyles of populations if physical anthropologists 1) pay attention to the choice of entheses in their studies and 2) use appropriate methods.
Texto completo:
1
Coleções:
01-internacional
Base de dados:
MEDLINE
Assunto principal:
Ossos da Extremidade Superior
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Estresse Fisiológico
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Biomarcadores
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Doenças Reumáticas
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Fenômenos Fisiológicos Musculoesqueléticos
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Ocupações
Tipo de estudo:
Prognostic_studies
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Risk_factors_studies
Limite:
Adult
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Female
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Humans
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Male
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Middle aged
Idioma:
En
Revista:
Am J Phys Anthropol
Ano de publicação:
2010
Tipo de documento:
Article