ORIGINAL ARTICLES   

The Journal of Sports Medicine and Physical Fitness 2000 September;40(3):260-70

Copyright © 2001 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

lingua: Inglese

A reliable technique for the assessment of posture: assessment criteria for aspects of posture

Watson A. W. S. ¹, Mac Donncha C. ²

¹ Sports Injuries Research Centre, University of Limerick, Limerick, Ireland; ² Physical Education and Sports Science Department, University of Limerick, Limerick, Ireland

Back­ground. The pur­poses of ­this ­study ­were: a) to ­describe assess­ment cri­teria for 10 sep­arate ­aspects of pos­ture; b) to ­describe the devel­op­ment and use of a qual­ita­tive pos­ture ­rating ­scale ­based on the ­above; and c) to estab­lish the reli­ability of the assess­ment tech­nique.
­Methods. Experi­mental ­design. Obser­va­tion and pho­to­graphic ­record of the pos­ture of a ­sample of ado­les­cent ­males. Reli­ability deter­mined ­using two obser­va­tions sep­ar­ated by a ­period of ­seven ­days. Par­tic­i­pants: 114 ado­les­cent ­males (age, 15-17 yrs) ran­domly ­selected ­from two ­post-pri­mary ­schools. Meas­ures: Ten dif­ferent ­aspects of pos­ture ­assessed ­according to ­defined cri­teria. Assess­ments ­made ­from ­four pho­to­graphs: ante­rior, pos­te­rior, lat­eral and ­oblique ­views.
­Results. ­Through exam­ina­tion of the pho­to­graphs a qual­ita­tive pos­tural assess­ment ­scale was devel­oped. ­This con­sisted of ­three cat­e­go­ries for ­each ­aspect of pos­ture, cor­re­sponding to: ­good pos­ture, mod­erate ­defect, and ­severe ­defect. Def­i­nite assess­ment cri­teria for ­each of the 10 ­aspects of pos­ture ­have ­been ­described. The ­above has ­resulted in an assess­ment pro­ce­dure in ­which the repro­du­cibility of the pos­ture ­scores ­exceeded 85% for all ­aspects ­assessed.
Con­clu­sions. Def­i­nite cri­teria for the exam­ina­tion of 10 dif­ferent ­aspects of pos­ture ­have ­been ­described and ­clear dia­grams rep­re­senting ­good pos­ture, mod­erate and ­severe ­defects ­have ­been pro­duced. The repro­du­cibility of the assess­ment pro­ce­dure ­described ­makes it suit­able for inves­ti­gating the rela­tion­ships ­between pos­ture and ­other ­health var­i­ables ­such as ­musculo-skel­etal dis­or­ders.