The Effects Of Using Three Upper Quarter Y-balance Test Variations On The Obese Population

PURPOSE: To examine the effects of higher BF% on the performance of the UQYBT in three different starting positions. METHODS: Twenty-four participants (36.4 ± 13.5 years, 164.0 ± 6.8 cm, 84.6 ± 18.64 kg, 36.1 ± 4.4 BF%) participated in this study. First, BF% was collected using handheld BIA, followed by a 5-minute UE warm-up on an arm ergometer. Participants performed a total of 54 reaches. Three reaches for each direction (medial, inferolateral, and superolateral), hand (right and left), and push-up starting position (traditional, modified, and wall). Participants had a 1-minute break after three trials and 2 minutes between starting positions. Supporting hand, reach direction, and starting position was randomized. The Participants highest reach scores were used for analysis. Repeated measure ANOVAs were used to compare the starting positions followed by post-hoc analysis, alpha = 0.05. RESULTS: Four participants did not complete the superolateral reach in the traditional UQYBT (TUQYBT). One participant did not complete the medial and inferolateral reaches in the TUQYBT. Repeated measure ANOVAs found significant main effects in medial and superolateral reaches, p-value<0.001. Post-hoc analysis found that wall UQYBT (WUQYBT) scores were higher in the medial reach than the modified UQYBT (MUQYBT) and TUQYBT (100.9 ± 12.1 cm, 87.8 ± 9.4 cm, 79.6 ± 18.6 cm, respectively) and in superolateral reach (64.1 ± 8.1 cm, 54.4 ± 6.1 cm, 41.0 ± 19.3 cm, respectively), p-value<0.001. In addition, MUQYBT reach scores in the medial and superolateral directions were significantly higher than TUQYBT, p-value<0.001. No significant difference was found in the inferolateral reach between TUQYBT, MUQYBT, and WUQYBT (61.7 ± 16.2 cm, 66.7 ± 9.0 cm, 64.9 ± 9.5 cm, respectively), p-value = 0.126. CONCLUSIONS: Higher BF% made it difficult for the participant to successfully complete the TUQYBT. The MUQYBT or WUQYBT may be better to test UE health in the obese population. More research is needed.