Abstract

Prevalence of Scoliosis Among Majmaah University Physical Therapy Students-Saudi Arabia

Scoliosis is the deviation in the normal vertical spine. Although there are numerous studies available about treatment approaches for scoliosis and screening schoolchildren, the numbers of studies that screen university student are limited. The present study aimed to investigate the prevalence of scoliosis, and to examine the correlation between scoliosis prevalence and increasing level (year) of study among physical therapy students in Majmaah University, Saudi Arabia. One hundred and fifty-two physical therapy students between 20 and 24 years of age were investigated. Ninety-two of these students were females and 60 were males. Spinal mouse (SM) was used to evaluate the frontal plane curvature of the student's spine. There was a high prevalence of scoliosis (31.5%) among physical therapy students at Majmaah University, particularly among female students, with the female-male ratio of 3:1. There were significant association between the scoliosis prevalence and the level of study in female students. It is obvious that female physical therapy students tend to develop scoliosis more than male students during the different levels of study for physical therapy program.

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