Head and shoulder posture variations in 160 asymptomatic women and men.
OBJECTIVE
To quantitatively describe the postural alignment of the head and shoulders and the surface curvature of the thoracic spine in comfortable erect standing and to examine the effect of age and gender on head and shoulder alignment.


METHODS
Descriptive survey.


METHODS
Gait research laboratory.


METHODS
One hundred sixty asymptomatic volunteers aged between 17 and 83 years.


METHODS
Five photographic measurements of head and shoulder posture in the coronal and sagittal planes and a photographic measurement of the surface curvature of the thoracic spine in the sagittal plane.


RESULTS
Mean values of coronal head tilt, coronal shoulder angle, sagittal head tilt, sagittal C7-tragus angle, and sagittal shoulder-C7 angle were 180.1 degrees, 181 degrees, 172.1 degrees, 131.1 degrees, and 53.7 degrees, respectively. The 95% confidence intervals for the means ranged between 1 degree and 3.8 degrees. For each of the head and shoulder measurements there was no significant gender difference (p = .33 to .99). Of the five measurements, only sagittal C7-tragus angle was significantly correlated with age (r = .44), and none was correlated with surface curvature of the thoracic spine.


CONCLUSIONS
Head and shoulder posture was similar between genders. Only one postural description that has been described anecdotally was identified, i.e., that age was related to the position of the head with respect to the trunk in the sagittal plane, although the strength of the association was of questionable clinical significance. In contrast, other longstanding assumptions were not supported, and accordingly, a forward head was not associated with increased thoracic curvature or upper cervical spine extension.
Raine
S
S
School of Physiotherapy, Curtin University of Technology, Perth, Australia.
Twomey
L T
LT
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D016001:Confidence Intervals; D005260:Female; D006257:Head / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010781:Photography / Q000379:methods; D011187:Posture / Q000502:physiology*; D012016:Reference Values; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012727:Sex Characteristics; D012782:Shoulder / Q000502:physiology*; D013499:Surface Properties; D013904:Thoracic Vertebrae / Q000502:physiology*