title: Spinal postural alignment variance according to sex and age in 7- and 8-year-old children.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Children's postural alignment undergoes many adjustments due to the changes in body proportions during the stages of growth. The objective of this study was to quantitatively characterize and analyze spinal postural standards in 7- and 8-year-old children to verify which of the differences found were correlated to age and sex.
  
  
  METHODS
  Two hundred thirty public school students (Amparo, São Paulo, Brazil) aged 7 to 8 years were divided into groups according to postural alignment, which were further subdivided by sex and age, for comparison. Digital photos of upright subjects were analyzed to evaluate posture. Lumbar and thoracic curvature, pelvic inclination, head posture, and lateral spine deviation were measured using CorelDraw (Ottawa, Canada) software guidelines and bone landmarks. Descriptive statistics and analysis of variance data analysis were utilized to verify differences among the groups. This was a cross-sectional, descriptive study.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Mean values for the variables analyzed were calculated. For lumbar lordosis, 7-year-old boys showed 38.49 degrees +/- 15.32 degrees in comparison to all other groups (42.29 degrees +/- 7.13 degrees ). For thoracic kyphosis, the 7-year-old children presented 28.07 degrees +/- 7.73 degrees , and the 8-year-olds 30.32 degrees +/- 7.73 degrees . Pelvic inclination presented a mean value of 15.82 degrees +/- 5.46 degrees and single lateral spine deviation mean value of 3.48 degrees +/- 2.12 degrees .
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  For the sample studied, differences based on sex and age were found for some of the body segments analyzed. The values found in this study may contribute to improved physiotherapeutic treatment when associated with other aspects of the clinical assessment and symptomatology.
authors.affiliation: Rehabilitation Sciences in the School of Medicine, Department of Physical Therapy, Speech and Occupational Therapy - University of São Paulo, São Paulo, SP, Brazil.
authors.forename: Patrícia Jundi
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: Penha
authors.forename: Marina
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Baldini
authors.forename: Sílvia Maria Amado
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: João
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D000886:Anthropometry / Q000379:methods*; D001827:Body Height; D015992:Body Mass Index; D001835:Body Weight; D001938:Brazil; D002648:Child; D002657:Child Development / Q000502:physiology; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D010781:Photography; D010808:Physical Examination / Q000379:methods; D011187:Posture / Q000502:physiology*; D011336:Probability; D012572:School Health Services; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D012737:Sex Factors; D013121:Spinal Curvatures / Q000175:diagnosis*; D013131:Spine / Q000254:growth & development / Q000502:physiology*; D013334:Students / Q000706:statistics & numerical data