The Role of Breast Size During Prolonged Standing: An Evaluation of Biomechanical, Pain Development, and Psychosocial Factors

Women with larger breasts have been found to have greater kyphosis and lordosis angles than women with smaller breasts. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether breast size is related to muscle activation, posture and pain development over a 2-hour prolonged standing exposure and psychosocial metrics. Twenty-one university aged females with various breast sizes (B-E cup) completed the study. Mean muscle activation, spine angles, pain scores and psychosocial related questionnaire data were collected. Breast size was not found to affect mean muscle activation and spine angles. However, a greater number of larger sized group developed clinical levels of pain than smaller breasted women. Larger breasted women also develop pain earlier than smaller breasted women in the upper and mid back and showed a strong correlation between psychosocial factors and increasing breast size. This work highlighted the importance of considering breast size, biomechanics and psychosocial measures together.