NORMATIVE VALUES OF BILATERAL SHOULDER ROTATION FLEXIBILITY FOR NIGERIANS USING SHOULDER ROTATION TEST

Abstract

Context: Dearth of normative data for bilateral shoulder rotation flexibility (BSRF) for Nigerians is currently a limitation in screening of athletes and patient management. Aims: This study was designed to generate normative values for BSRF among healthy Nigerians of different age groups using the shoulder rotation test (SRT). Settings and Design: A four-stage sampling technique was used in recruiting 4000 (male [Formula: see text] 2048; female [Formula: see text] 1952) participants into this cross-sectional descriptive survey. Methods and Material: Participants aged between 5 and 64 years were grouped into 12 age strata. Participants' BSRF was measured using the Acuflex III flexibility tester. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics of mean, standard deviation and percentiles. Results: Participants' mean age was 24.22 [Formula: see text] 14.65 years. Participants’ BSRF increased with age thus indicating reduced flexibility with age. In the twelve age groups of 5–9, 10–14, 15–19, 20–24, 25–29, 30–34, 35–39, 40–44, 45–49, 50–54, 55–59 and 60–64, the BSRF for the male participants were 26.29 [Formula: see text] 12.64cm, 37.95 [Formula: see text] 16.15cm, 54.33 [Formula: see text] 21.08cm, 58.21 [Formula: see text] 23.01cm, 65.50 [Formula: see text] 22.67cm, 74.75 [Formula: see text] 17.06cm, 74.42 [Formula: see text] 17.06cm, 77.97 [Formula: see text] 16.38cm, 81.26 [Formula: see text] 14.88cm, 82.77 [Formula: see text] 14.42cm, 86.00 [Formula: see text] 14.82cm and 93.25 [Formula: see text] 12.73cm respectively. Those for female participants were 25.34 [Formula: see text] 12.28cm, 41.12 [Formula: see text] 15.48cm, 50.46 [Formula: see text] 18.60cm, 49.19 [Formula: see text] 19.75cm, 58.26 [Formula: see text] 17.16cm, 62.40 [Formula: see text] 16.72cm, 67.32 [Formula: see text] 18.50cm, 69.37 [Formula: see text] 17.14cm, 71.80 [Formula: see text] 15.18cm, 75.21 [Formula: see text] 15.57cm, 73.55 [Formula: see text] 14.09cm and 81.21 [Formula: see text] 10.89cm respectively. Males generally had higher scores (lesser flexibility) than females across the twelve age groups except for the 10–14 year age. The percentiles of the BSRF scores for the participants showed a steady increase in BSRF scores from age 5–9years to 60–64years. Conclusion: This study generated population-based normative values according to age and gender for BSRF using the SRT for healthy Nigerians.