Sagittal spine shape literacy in the general adult population,assessed by a
novel,simple graphical tool |
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Authors: | Larry Cohen Evangelos Pappas Milena Simic Kathryn Refshauge Sarah Dennis |
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Affiliation: | 1) Sydney School of Health Sciences, Faculty of Medicine and Health, The University of Sydney: Susan Wakil Building, Western Avenue, Sydney, New South Wales 2006, Australia;2) The University of Wollongong, Australia;3) Ingham Institute for Applied Medical Research, Australia |
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Abstract: | [Purpose] The sagittal shape of the spine is associated with back-pain, balance and quality of life. We developed, evaluated and report the responses of a graphical tool to assess sagittal spine shape knowledge (literacy). [Participants and Methods] Two hundred and fifty adults were randomly assigned, in a cross-sectional crossover study, to free-hand draw and select the “ideal” sagittal spine shape. We evaluated the inter and intra-rater reliability and agreement between tests and the sagittal and lordotic spine literacy between the drawing and selection test versions. [Results] Drawing test inter- and intra-rater agreement was 79% and 80% respectively. Drawing vs. selection agreement was 43%. More participants drew than selected the correct spine (30% vs. 21%) (p<0.001) and lumbar lordosis shape (56% vs. 42%) (p<0.001). Test order did not affect spine shape literacy scores. A significantly poorer literacy trend was observed with spine pain presence (p=0.02). [Conclusion] We developed a reliable method to evaluate spine shape literacy and established that only 21% and 42% of our sample demonstrated correct sagittal spine and lordotic spine shape literacy, respectively. The low literacy scores suggests that consideration of including spine shape literacy in health literacy and self-management programs may be warranted, especially in ageing populations. |
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Keywords: | Health literacy posture back pain |
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