because many authors have suggested that inadequate trunk muscle endurance could contribute to the development and chonicization of low back pain, the objective of this study was to investigate the impact of abdominal muscle fatigue on trunk neuromuscular and kinematic responses during a flexion-relaxation task. Methods: Twenty-one healthy subjects (9 women and 12 men) volunteered for this study. Participants were asked to perform two blocks of five trunk flexion-extension in two different experimental conditions: the first block preceding a sustained isometric abdominal contraction and the second block immediately following a specific fatigue task. This fatigue task consisted of a 90-s sustained isometric contraction of the abdominal muscles in an inclined position (608 inclination). Abdominal muscle fatigue was evaluated using EMG median frequency slope as well as pre- and post-fatigue maximal voluntary contraction of the abdominal muscles. Electromyography data of ES and abdominal muscles as well as trunk and pelvis kinematic data were recorded throughout all conditions. Trunk flexion angles corresponding to the onset and cessation of myoelectric silence, maximal trunk flexion angle, lumbar to hip movement ratio (L/H ratio) and normalized EMG values across all phases of movement were compared between the two different experimental conditions. Results: Median frequency of abdominal EMG signal was reduced primarily during the first 60 s of the fatiguing task and abdominal muscle fatigue did not alter the total trunk flexion angle (95.38Æ13.08 vs 96.1Æ11.98). Abdominal fatigue yielded a significant increase in L/H ratio in mid-section of the flexion and extension phases indicating that lumbar spine segments’ contribution to movement was increased. Despite the changes observed in L/H ratio, the onset and cessation angles of the FRP as well as EMG activity of ES muscles throughout all phases of movement did not change following abdominal fatigue. Discussion: Previous studies showed that back extensor and hip extensor muscle fatigue leads to an increased range of motion during which ES muscles present a FRP. These studies also showed that these changes were associated with changes in kinematics. Other authors have proposed that trunk co-contraction was increased to maintain spinal stability following abdominal muscle fatigue. Abdominal muscle fatigue, although leading to changes in lumbopelvic rhythm, did not yield changes in spatio-temporal parameters of the FRP. Our results may be an indication that spinal stability during a flexion-extension task is not challenged by abdominal fatigue. Conclusion: Abdominal muscle fatigue does not seem to affect FRP parameters despite changes in lumbo- pelvic kinematics. Further studies are needed to assess effects of abdominal muscle fatigue on trunk stability. doi: 10.1016/j.clch.2011.09.010 A multinational survey of the demographics of chiropractic paediatric care § Matthew Doyle E-mail address: drmatthewdoyle@gmail.com Background: Numerous demographic surveys have described the chiropractor and their practice character- istics. Minimal data exists to describe chiropractic paediatric care. This survey was designed to begin filling this gap. Objectives: To identify the demographic profile and educational background of chiropractors with paediatric patients; to identify the most common types of paediatric cases that present to the chiropractor; to identify the perception of results commonly associated with chiropractic paediatric care; to identify the common sources of referral and the common routines of chiropractic care for the paediatric patient. Design: Multinational online cross-sectional retrospective survey. Subjects: Practicing chiropractors (n = 1498) from 17 countries. Methods: An online survey was created using the SurveyMonkey website. Chiropractors were sent an introductory email via chiropractic associations in multiple countries with an embedded link to the survey. The survey included ten questions on basic demographics and fifteen questions on paediatric demographics. Data were collated and analysed using SurveyMonkey and Microsoft Excel. Results: 1498 chiropractors completed the basic demographic questions. 90.4% (1354) accepted paedia- tric patients. Eighty-four percent of those (1142) completed the paediatric questions. The average practi- tioner was: male (61.1%); aged 41.4 years; had practised for 13.6 years; saw 107 patient visits per week; those who accepted paediatric patients saw 15.5 of those per week, at an average initial fee of £35 and £24 for return visits. The most commonly seen age groups were 12—18 year- olds (45.4%) followed by 1—11 150 Abstracts from the WFC’s 11th Biennial Congress