Relationship between the forward head and thoracic hyper-kyphosis deformities with body image in non-athletes females

Abstract

Introduction: The state of health and illness in each of physical or mental dimensions can influence on the other dimension. Thus, it is essential to study interaction between physical deformities and mental variations. Nevertheless, this issue already is not considered sufficiently. The objective of present research was to study the relationship between deformities of the spine including forward head and thoracic hyper-kyphosis with body imagein non-athletes females. Materials and Methods: One hundred twenty non-athletes female who their ages ranged from 25 to 30 years old, were participated in this study. These participants were divided into two groups, with each group had 60 members and were associated with one of the deformities including forward head and thoracic kyphosis. The angle ofthoracic kyphosis was measured by flexible ruler and forward head was measured by photogrammetry method. Results: Data in both descriptive and inferential statistics were analyzed using SPSS version 19. The relationship between the spine deformities was assessed by Pearson correlation coefficient. Results show that although there was a significant relationship between body image and kyphosis abnormality in non-athlete girl student (r = 0.951, p = 0.008) but there was also no significant relationship between body image and forward head (r = 0.29, p = 0.21). Conclusion: It seems that in deformities such as thoracic kyphosis that is physically evident and is well known by most people body image weakness is more. So, lack of awareness about forward head posture may decrease the person’s sensitivity to their appeareance. Although psychological, economical, business, lifestyle and cultural as well as factors other relevant factors most be considered.