Journal of Spine

Background: Evidence showed that the poor body posture in adulthood is often formed from the childhood, and individuals with severe abnormal body posture may associated with the progress to scoliosis. However, there is still a lack of epidemiological evidence in the prevalence of adolescent abnormal body posture compared to scoliosis. To estimate the prevalence of abnormal body posture among children and adolescents, and to describe the epidemiological findings according to the demographic characteristics.

Method: This is a population-based, cross-sectional study of school screening program in south China. We sample a large representative dataset comprising data collected from 1^th to 12^th graders using a multistage, stratified-cluster, random-sampling method. Our sample consisted of 158,584 children and adolescents who were screened by visual inspection of clinical signs, the forward-bending test, and the measurement of angle of trunk rotation (ATR). The demographic characteristic and results of screening tests were collected and analyzed.

Results: A total of 158,584 school students were screened, with a boys-to-girls ratio of 1.2:1. The overall prevalence of abnormal body posture in Chinese children and adolescents was 65.3% (95% CI: 65.0%-65.5%), around 3.7% (95% CI: 3.6%-3.8%) of children and adolescents were referred for radiography. According to gender and age, girls had a higher prevalence of abnormal body posture than boys (76.0% vs. 56.6%, χ2=6519.15, P<0.001), students aged 10-15 and >15 years old had a higher prevalence of abnormal body posture than students <10 years old (64.8% and 71.1% vs. 41.3%, χ²=681.18, P<0.001).

Conclusion: Our findings showed that Chinese children and adolescents have a significantly higher prevalence of abnormal body posture, girls and older students may be an especially high-risk group. Prevention and intervention programs targeting for school students should be established to improve their physical health.