Between-day reliability of diers formetric 4d® measurements and the effects of prolonged sitting on five standing positions in healthy university students

Abstract

Background. The aim of this study was to investigate between-day reliability of postur-al measurements and to examine the effects of prolonged sitting (2 hours) on standing spinal posture using the DIERS Formetric 4D®device. Methods. A test-retest reliability study was performed on 14 healthy university students to assess spinal shape parameters in five different standing positions. Between-day reliability was assessed using the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC 3,1) and agreement was calculated with the standard errors of measurement and smallest real differences for the outcomes of interest. The paired t-test was used to compare the mean differences in standing spinal posture before and after prolonged sitting. Results. For between-day reliability, trunk and pelvic imbalances and spinal deviation measures showed poor to moderate reliability when compared to other spine shape parameters that demonstrated moderate to good reliability. This study also showed a significant difference between pre-and post-sitting for 2 hours on specific spinal parameters except certain trunk/pelvic imbalances and spinal deviation measurements. Conclusions. The DIERS Formetric 4D® device could be considered as a reliable tool for measuring spine shape parameters relating to localization, distance and spine curve measurements for certain standing postures in healthy male students. Our preliminary findings indicated a change in spinal shape parameters after 2 hours of prolonged sitting.