COMPARISON OF POSTURAL VARIABLE IN DIVISION 2 ATHLETES AND NON-ATHLETE COLLEGE STUDENTS

Authors

JL Callum
CA Woodfield

Abstract

Johnathon L. Callum¹ & Caleb A. Woodfield¹

¹Ouachita Baptist University, Arkadelphia, Arkansas

Research has indicated a possible difference in the development of posture deformities in athletes and non-athletes. PURPOSE: This study was to identify posture differences in division 2 collegiate athletes and non-collegiate athletes and provide a two-week intervention to reduce discrepancies found. METHODS: 16 male athletes, 10 male non-athletes, 12 female athletes, and 13 female non-athletes participated. During the assessment, participants were evaluated from posterior and sagittal views with an adjusted REEDCO Posture Assessment. They were scored on a scale of 3 to 1 with 3 being good and 1 being poor in 10 categories with 30 being the max score. The volunteers were provided 4 stretches: neck extension, doorframe stretch, shoulder tuck, sitting up straight in a chair. They completed an anonymous survey indicating how often they did the intervention. RESULTS: The initial plumb line test average score for male athletes was 28.37, 27.10 for male non-athletes, 27.16 for female athletes, and 26.92 for female non-athletes. The final scores for male athletes were 28.93, 28.10 for male non-athletes, 29.16 for female athletes, and 28.69 for female non-athletes. 6% of the population said they did the intervention for 2 weeks, 23% did it for a week and a half, 51% did it for 1 week, and 20% didn't do it at all. After conducting a one-way ANOVA test with the average scores of the final plumb line test a p-value of 0.1723 was found. Most group's scores on average increased by 1.33 points after participating in the intervention. CONCLUSION: A difference in posture scores for the populations being tested was observed. Athletes had better initial and post posture scores than non-athletes. The intervention improved scores for most participants. A Limitation of the study includes not monitoring volunteers’ adherence to the intervention. When conducting future research keeping track of the exact sport or activities the athletes and non-athletes participate in would be beneficial.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: This study was funded by the Ouachita Baptist University Kinesiology Department.

Recommended Citation

Callum, JL and Woodfield, CA (2022) "COMPARISON OF POSTURAL VARIABLE IN DIVISION 2 ATHLETES AND NON-ATHLETE COLLEGE STUDENTS," International Journal of Exercise Science: Conference Proceedings: Vol. 11: Iss. 9, Article 62.
Available at: https://digitalcommons.wku.edu/ijesab/vol11/iss9/62