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Publication of the Medical Rehabilitation is under the auspices of the Committee on Rehabilitation, Physical Education and Social Integration of the Polish Academy of Science
Article
Medical Rehabilitation - quarterly journal
Volume 12 year 2008, Issue number 4
The forming of anterior-posterior spinal curvatures in young people from junior high schools and grammar schools
Authors: Katarzyna Walicka-Cupryś, Ewa Puszczałowska-Lizis, Katarzyna Maziarz
Medical Rehabilitation 2008; 12(3): 28-36
The forming of anterior-posterior spinal curvatures in young people from junior high schools and grammar schools
Kształtowanie się przednio-tylnych krzywizn kręgosłupa u uczniów z klas gimnazjalnych i licealnych
Katarzyna Walicka-Cupryś, Ewa Puszczałowska-Lizis, Katarzyna Maziarz
The University of Rzeszów’s Institute of Physiotherapy
Key words
body posture, inclinometer, Saunders norm
Abstract
Introduction: Defects of posture in children and adolescents have been frequently observed for many years. The determination of the shape and size of anterior-posterior spinal curvatures is one of the elements within the examination and assessment of body posture.
Aim: Characteristics of anterior-posterior spinal curvatures in the examined young people in reference to general Saunders norm.Material and method: the examinations covered 117 young people (67 girls and 50 boys), aged 13–19 years old. The measurements of the size of anterior-posterior spinal curvatures were taken using an inclinometer. The children were examinated under the following points: the medianus point of the sacrum bone (ά angle), area intervertebralis Th12–L1 (β angle) and area intervertebralis C7–Th1 (γ angle). The Wolański method was applied to show the differences of individual types of body posture. The Statistica 7.0 program (¬t-Student test and χ²test) was applied to check if statistically significant differences occured.
Results: The differences of the statistically significant (p<0.05) were stated in the γ angle amongst young people from grammar school and junior high school. The statistically significant differences were noted in the forming of thoracal kyphosis between the girls from the junior high school and the girls from the grammar school and between the boys from the junior high school and the boys from the grammar school (in both cases p<0.05). The most common type of body posture for all the teenagers was of the kyphotic type (63.2%). The most frequent defect of body posture was flat lumbar lordosis (28.2%).
Conclusions: The existence of a curvature angle increase in thoracal kyphosis and angle reduction in lumbar lordosis in reference to the general Saunders norm is common in both research groups. The thoracal kyphosis is formed differently in girls and boys from grammar schools and junior high schools. It follows to form the lumbar lordosis in the correction of body posture.