Musculoskeletal posture profile analyses of University of Kwa-Zulu Natal students in South Africa

Postural deviation is more than an aesthetic problem, which progresses beyond the boundary of physical appearance. Two hundred and four University of Kwa-Zulu Natal students studying at the Westville campus participated in the study through voluntary informed consent. Subjects’ underwent postural analyses, according to the Kendall et al (2005) postural analyses protocol which identified the presence of scoliosis in the frontal plane and kyphosis and lordosis in the sagittal plane. In addition subjects’ body mass and stature were recorded. Descriptive statistics which included the mode, mean, frequency, percentages and inferential statistics comprising of chi-square (p≤ 0.05) were employed in the statistical analysis. The results identified 70.44% and 73.94% incidence of scoliosis among the male and female students respectively (p<0.05) in the frontal plane. Similarly musculoskeletal postural analyses in the sagittal plane identified 76.13% and 72.19% incidence of kyphosis and 56.57% and 39.86% incidence of lordosis among female and male students (p<0.05).Keywords: Posture, scoliosis, kyphosis, lordosis