Effects of thoracic posture correction exercises on scapular position.
Won-Gyu Yoo
PMID 29581661WHAT IT FOUND
Thoracic extension exercises reduced measured kyphosis angle and scapular forward distance in 10 young adults after 12 days.
No control group was used, so this does not prove the exercises caused the change.
Key findings
01The thoracic kyphosis angle after exercise was 41.60 ± 6.60°, compared with 47.40 ± 3.50° before exercise.
02Scapular forward distance after exercise was 7.86 ± 1.74 cm, compared with 8.40 ± 1.78 cm before exercise.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTs
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What it does not show
Only 10 subjects were studied, all aged 20 to 26 years and with a kyphosis angle of at least 40°, so the results may not apply to older adults or people with different posture. There was no control group or random allocation, so the change cannot be separated from normal variation, measurement error, or other factors. The two exercise routines were performed together, so the contribution of any single routine cannot be separated. The exercise programme lasted 12 days, and no follow-up after that was reported, so duration of effect is unknown. Outcomes were limited to posture measurements; pain, function, and patient-reported effects were not measured. The paper did not report blinding of assessors or the reliability of the inclinometer and scapular measurements.
Declared interests
The study was supported by the Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea, funded by the Ministry of Education (No. 2017R1D1A1B03035485). The authors declared no conflict of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that thoracic posture correction exercises reliably treat kyphosis or improve scapular position in patients. This was a single-group study of 10 participants with no control group, and it measured only posture angles and scapular distance immediately after 12 days of exercise.