Validity and Reliability of Shyam 3600 Posture Grid: A Tool for the Assessment of Human Posture

Background Posture is defined as the alignment and positioning of the body in relation to gravity, center of mass and base of support. Occurrence of postural defects has become very common now- a-days not only in aging population but also in adult personal. There are various methods which can be used to assess these postural defects. These methods have evolved over a period of many years. This paper is first of its kind to summarize the methods of postural assessment which have been used and which can be used for evaluation of postural abnormalities in college going students. Postural assessment is an important tool which can be used to assess the reasons behind various injuries. A variety of postural assessment methods have been in use. One of the newer method used for postural assessment is by newly developed SHYAM 360 degree Posture Grid. We recommend more and more postural evaluation studies to be done in future based on the method of Shyam 360 degree postural grid. Method Observational study conducted at Dr. Vitthalrao Vikhe Patil College of Physiotherapy, Ahmednagar. There were healthy individuals (Male/Female) included in the study by convenient sampling method. Consent was obtained and Posture assessment was done on SHYAM 360 degree Posture Grid in three views and recorded data was analyzed, result was obtained. Results For posture assessment, reliability was moderate to substantial. The percentage of agreement and Kappa coefficients (K) for the visual observation of posture asymmetries for Posture score sheet was k=0.999 and for Shyam 360 degree Posture grid was k=0.999. The test for sensitivity and specificity of both the outcome measure was statistically significant. Conclusion SHYAM 360 degree posture grid is valid when compared with commonly used Posture score sheet assessed on the subjects.