Background and purpose: Investigate the feasibility and significance of simple and objective posture evaluation methods for preventing intervention of daily care for elderly people.
Subjects and Methods: The subjects were 42 healthy community-dwelling elderly people. We performed three methods of posture evaluation ((1)kyphosis index, (2)occiput-to-wall distance: OWD, and (3)observation scale). Participants answered a questionnaire on disability during daily life.
Results: The 3 methods of posture evaluation showed significant correlations with each other ((1)-(2): ρ=0.527, p=0.000, (2)-(3): ρ=0.315, p=0.042, (1)-(3): ρ=0.416, p=0.006). As the results of the questionnaire, subjects with "orthopedic disease" and "osteoporosis" showed significantly poorer scores with all three methods compared to the subjects without these symptoms. On the other hand, subjects with "pain, numbness, and stiffness", and a "fear of falling" showed significantly poorer scores only for OWD compared to the subjects without these symptoms.
Conclusion: OWD was suggested to be a feasible and objective posture evaluation method, which may be correlated with "pain, numbness, and stiffness" and a "fear for falling", and may prevent intervention of care for daily life in elderly people.
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