Prevalence Of Forward Head Posture And Its Association With Gender, BMI And Neck Pain Among College Going Students – A Cross Sectional Study

Abstract

Background: Forward head posture is the common faulty posture of the neck that has been widely reported among teenagers and young population as theykeeptheir head forward unknowingly while using smartphones and laptops which affects the head-neck-shoulder mechanics. Moreover, in physiotherapy the nature of the profession necessitates neck flexion which the students may unaware of.
Objective: To find the prevalence of forward head posture and its association with gender, BMI and neck pain among college going students.
Methods: This cross-sectional study adopted convenient sampling method. After screening for selection criteria,150 physiotherapy students studying under the Department of PMR, aged between 18 and 25 years were recruited. Their age, height, weight and BMI were recorded. The CV anglewas assessed using Kinovea software, a photogrammetric method.Participants were asked to mark the intensity of neck pain in Numerical Pain Rating Scale (NPRS) and who had no neck pain marks zero score.
Results: The mean age of the participants was 19.8± 1.42 years.Female students were dominant by 60%.It was found that 63.3% had reduced CV angleand 36.7% had normal CV angle.BMI (p=0.003) had significant association with CV angle. The genderand neck pain had no significant association with CV angle (p>0.05).
Conclusion: There was a marked prevalence of FHP among college students. It was significantly associated with weight component of BMI whereasgender and neck pain had no associations.