Physiotherapy as a Specific and Purposeful Form of Physical Activity in Children with Idiopathic Body Asymmetry

Abstract

The aim of the study was to determine the relationship between idiopathic asymmetry in infants and body posture in children at an early school age. The study included 45 girls aged nine. The Diers Formetric III 4D device was used to assess body posture, which allows photogrammetric registration of the back surface using the raster stereography process. For the purposes of the re-search project, the examination was performed via DiCAM using the “Average measurement” mode. Despite physiotherapy, these children had more postural defects later on compared to the control group due to asymmetry. They mainly concerned pelvic skewness, scoliosis angle, deviation from the vertical line and lateral deviation, as well as surface rotation. Positive correlations were observed between direction of asymmetry and pelvic skewness (r = 0.40), and between the location of asymmetry and the location of curvature (r = 0.39). Significant negative correlations were also found between the age of treatment initiation and trunk length (r = −0.42). There was also a negative correlation between the number of physiotherapeutic appointments and deviation from the vertical line, which means that along with an increase in the number of physiotherapeutic visits, the value of deviation from the vertical line decreased (p = −0.40). For scoliosis angle, the most important predictor was the direction of asymmetry (p = 0.05). For the location of the curvature, the most important predictor was the direction of asymmetry (p = 0.04), as well as the number of physiotherapeutic appointments (p = 0.04). Additionally, regression analysis allowed us to show that the number of physiotherapeutic visits (p = 0.03) was the most important predictor of curvature direction. The applied physiotherapy probably contributed to the occurrence of a smaller number of postural defects in these children at a later age. Physiotherapy as a specific and targeted form of physical activity among infants with idiopathic asymmetry should play a very important role in the prevention of body posture defects.