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Is ‘ideal’ sitting posture real?: Measurement of spinal curves in four sitting postures

Overview of attention for article published in Musculoskeletal Science and Practice, September 2008
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Title
Is ‘ideal’ sitting posture real?: Measurement of spinal curves in four sitting postures
Published in
Musculoskeletal Science and Practice, September 2008
DOI 10.1016/j.math.2008.06.001
Pubmed ID
Authors

Andrew P. Claus, Julie A. Hides, G. Lorimer Moseley, Paul W. Hodges

Abstract

There is a lack of quantitative evidence for spinal postures that are advocated as 'ideal' in clinical ergonomics for sitting. This study quantified surface spinal curves and examined whether subjects could imitate clinically 'ideal' directions of spinal curve at thoraco-lumbar and lumbar regions: (i) flat - at both regions (ii) long lordosis - lordotic at both regions (iii) short lordosis - thoracic kyphosis and lumbar lordosis. Ten healthy male subjects had 3-D motion sensors adhered to the skin so that sagittal spinal curves were represented by angles at thoracic (lines between T1-T5 and T5-T10), thoraco-lumbar (T5-T10 and T10-L3) and lumbar regions (T10-L3 and L3-S2). Subjects attempted to imitate pictures of spinal curves for the flat, long lordosis, short lordosis and a slumped posture, and were then given feedback/manual facilitation to achieve the postures. Repeated measures analysis of variance was used to compare spinal angles between posture and facilitation conditions. Results show that although subjects imitated postures with the same curve direction at thoraco-lumbar and lumbar regions (slumped, flat or long lordosis), they required feedback/manual facilitation to differentiate the regional curves for the short lordosis posture. Further study is needed to determine whether the clinically proposed 'ideal' postures provide clinical advantages.

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Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 467 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
United Kingdom 5 1%
United States 4 <1%
Canada 4 <1%
Australia 2 <1%
Chile 2 <1%
Iran, Islamic Republic of 2 <1%
India 2 <1%
Austria 1 <1%
Latvia 1 <1%
Other 7 1%
Unknown 437 94%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Student > Master 112 24%
Student > Ph. D. Student 54 12%
Student > Bachelor 54 12%
Researcher 42 9%
Other 34 7%
Other 108 23%
Unknown 63 13%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Medicine and Dentistry 140 30%
Engineering 70 15%
Nursing and Health Professions 53 11%
Sports and Recreations 38 8%
Design 19 4%
Other 60 13%
Unknown 87 19%