Abstract
Background
Postural assessment is important for several reasons, poor posture can lead to a range of musculoskeletal issues. Posture plays a crucial role in biomechanics and movement efficiency and also impacts an individual's appearance, confidence, and overall well-being. Existing visual assessment tools have not kept pace with the latest scientific Approaches and paradigm shifts in our understanding of the holistic assessment. This study aims to address this gap by designing and validating a new observational tool for observational postural assessment that integrates current scientific insight and best practices in musculoskeletal health.
Methods
This is a cross-sectional design including recruiting both qualitative and quantitates methods to develop and test psychometric properties of the Observational Static Posture Assessment Tool (OSPAT). To establish the validity of the OSPAT, we employed Lawshe's Content Validity Ratio (CVR) and Content Validity Index (CVI) through a collaborative process involving consultation with 12 experts. To test the reliability, 28 raters utilized the OSPAT on a sample of 80 individuals. Each practitioner rated the presence of postural deviations including Upper Crossed Syndrome, Sway Back Posture, Lower Crossed Syndrome, Genu Recurvatum, Scoliosis, Genu Varum, Genu Valgum, and Foot Pronation Syndrome in each subject using a 6-point scale of severity. We employed Kappa coefficients (κ) to assess both intra-rater and inter-rater reliability.
Results
The analysis for OSPAT validity showed overall CVR and CVI, (0.70 and CVI > 79) index, respectively. The results for OSPAT reliability revealed good intra-rater and inter-rater agreement, with κ values of 0.68 and 0.53, respectively.
Conclusions
The OSPAT showed promise for valid and reliable observational static postural assessment, overcoming the limitations of segmental evaluation by taking a holistic approach to postural assessment and considering the body as an interconnected system.