Validity and Reliability of the Wii Balance Board for Static Balance Assessment in Healthy Young Adults

@#Introduction: The Wii Balance Board (WBB) is a commonly used tool for balance assessment, however the inconsistency in the reported validity for the WBB when used for the assessment of healthy young adults needs to be clarified. Aim: To investigate the concurrent validity and reliability of the WBB for balance assessment in healthy young adults. Methods: Thirty-two young adults participated in this study. Their ability to balance was tested while standing on a WBB and a laboratory-grade force platform, under three conditions: feet together with eyes open, feet together with eyes closed and semi-tandem standing with eyes open. They had 10 min resting period between tests. The agreement between the WBB and the laboratory-grade force platform was investigated, and the reliability of the WBB was determined. Results: A poor agreement between the WBB and the laboratory-grade force platform was found for all standing conditions [intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) = 0.03 to 0.07]. A moderate to high reliability was found for the WBB for balance assessment in healthy young adults (ICC = 0.66 to 0.76). Conclusion: The WBB was found to be a reliable tool for static balance assessment in healthy young adults. However, it had poor validity compared to the laboratory-grade force platform.

Prevalence and factors associated with neck and shoulder pain in sewing occupation: a study at Banphai district Khon Kaen

Objectives   To determine the prevalence of neck and shoulder pain and to study the factors of neck and shoulder pain in term of work related and individual factors in sewing factory employees. Methods The cross-sectional descriptive study was carried out from a sewing factory in Banphai district Khon Kean province. Three hundred and ninety eight employees (69 males, and 329 females) of a clothes sewing factory average aged 20-39 years participated in the study. The data collected by self-administered questionnaire, a modified Standardized Nordic Questionnaire. Results The study found prevalence of neck pain during the 7 days, neck pain during the past 12 months, and neck pain with sickness absence were 23.6%, 20.9% and 13.6% respectively. In addition, we also found the prevalence of shoulder pain during the 7 days, during the past 12 months, and shoulder pain with sickness absence were 27.4%, 25.1% and 19.3% respectively. Factors which were significant related to neck and shoulder pain (p-value \< 0.05 ) included : past history of musculoskeletal pain and work with over force.  Conclusion We conclude that the prevalence of neck pain and shoulder pain are relatively high in sewing factory workers and that greatly affects the quality of life, sickness absence and costly health. Sewing factory workers who had musculoskeletal pain and work with over force are factors associated with the neck and shoulder pain. It is suggested that program for prevention of neck and shoulder pain should be implemented the workers with the support from the employer and community health centers.

Reliability of height loss measuring stadiometer

Vertical spinal creep can be measured from height loss of the body which can be used as an index of spinal loading. This height loss can be assessed with a stadiometer that is a safe and highly reliable device. The firstly invented stadiometer in Thailand is called “height loss measuring stadiometer.” This study investigated the reliability of the height loss measuring stadiometer in sitting posture by examining the reliability of the digimetic indicator device and the reliability of the measurement. Subjects were 10 healthy participants (5 males, 5 females). Intraclass Correlation Coefficiency (ICC) and means of standard deviations (SDs) were calculated. The results showed very high reliability of the digimetic indicator (ICC 1,1 = 1.00) and high reliability of the height loss measuring stadiometer (ICC 3,1 = 0.96). Mean of standard deviations was 0.17 millimeter which was less than the generally acceptable value that should be less than 0.5 millimeter. We conclude that the currently invented height loss measuring stadiometer is a highly reliable device that can be used for investigating the vertical spinal creep or measuring the height loss of the body from spinal loading after several activities.

The prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders in the textile occupation in Khon Kaen province

Musculoskeletal disorders are one of the common health problems which can make people discomfort during doing activity or during working and this could affect the quality of their life, family and society. It can arise in every occupation, especially in the industries and also involved in textile occupation. The knowledge of prevalence of musculoskeletal disorder is important information and can be a potential practical guidance to prevent musculoskeletal disorders which will be a good effect for people and economy in their country. The aim of this study was to examine the prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders in the textile occupation in Khon Kaen, Thailand. Three hundred and twenty-three workers of several divisions of the textile industry were participated in this study. The participants were asked to fill out the Standard Nordic Questionnaire in Thai version. This study found that the top three of the most prevalence of musculoskeletal pain in seven days were shoulder pain (39.7 %, 95 % CI: 34.3 – 45.1), low back pain (36.3 %, 95 % CI: 30.9 – 41.6), and wrist and fingers pain (33.1 %, 95 % CI: 27.9 – 38.3), respectively. The top three of the most prevalence of musculoskeletal pain in twelve months were shoulder pain (49.8 %, 95 % CI: 44.4 – 55.3), low back pain (46.6 %, 95 % CI: 41.1 – 52.2), and neck pain (42.6 %, 95 % CI: 37.0 – 48.1), respectively. And the top three of the most disability which affected by pain were low back pain (27.5 %, 95 % CI: 22.5 – 32.5), hip pain (21.4 %, 95 % CI: 16.9 – 26.0), and shoulder pain (21.4 %, 95 % CI: 16.8 – 26.0), respectively. The findings of the study demonstrated that low back pain was the most frequent problem that was found in the textile industrial workers and could make them absent from work. Therefore, it would be worth to further investigate the risk factors of this problem in the textile industrial workers in order to prevent them suffering from the disorder.

Postero-anterior Pressure Technique for Lubar Intervertebral Disc Herniation

Background : Physical therapy treatment is one of the treatment used for the management of lumbar disc herniation and become more popular during resent years. Loss of function of lumbar spine is an essential problem for the back pain patient. Manual therapists sometimes select the technique of postero-anterior pressure (PA) to gain range in lumbar movements.Objectives : To measure the effect of postero-anterior pressure technique on lumbar spine movement in lumbar disc herniationDesign : An experimental studySetting : Srinagarind Hospital, Faculty of Medicine, Khon Kaen UniversitySubjects and Methods : Forty patients who were diagnosed with lumbar disc herniation by Orthopaedics and Radiologists. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was used to a gold standard for diagnoses. Subjects were randomly assigned to a treatment or control group. The treatment group received both the lumbar traction and the postero-anterior pressures technique. The control group received only the lumbar traction.Measurements : The measurements consists of pain scale using the visual analogue, trunk movement and straight leg raising (SLR) using the inclinometer.Results : A Mann-Whitney U-test and Generalized Estimating Equation (GEE) revealed no significant difference between groups in the pain level. A repeated measure ANOVA no showed no significant difference between groups both trunk movements and SLR degrees. Even though, the results of the pain scale, the trunk movements and the SLR in the treatment group were not found to be significant difference from the control group but there were a tendency.Conclusion : This study is the first study providing support for the use of postero-anterior

Reliability of surface electromyography measurement on lumbar multifidus muscles and internal oblique muscles during sub-maximal voluntary muscle contraction in healthy Thai participants

Surface electromyography (sEMG) is a non-invasive method with high accuracy to investigate the muscleactivation. The common outcome measurement of this method is sub-maximal voluntary muscle contraction(sub-MVC). sEMG has been shown high reliability in measuring trunk muscle. However, no study reports thereliability of sub-MVC measurement of sEMG in trunk muscles of Thai population. The aim of this study was toinvestigate the reliability of sEMG measurement for lumbar multifidus muscles (LM) and internal oblique muscles(IO) during sub-maximal voluntary muscle contraction. Subjects were 10 healthy Thai participants (5 males, 5females). sEMG of each LM and IO muscle was measured 3 times on both sides. Intraclass correlation coefficients(ICC) and standard error of measurement as a percentage of grand mean (% SEM) were estimated. The resultsshowed that there were very high reliability of left lumbar multifidus muscle (ICC mean 0.99; ICC range 0.98-1.00;% SEM = 1.06), right lumbar multifidus muscle (ICC mean 0.99; ICC range 0.98-1.00; % SEM = 1.07), leftinternal oblique muscle (ICC mean 0.96; ICC range 0.93-0.98; % SEM = 3.42) and right internal oblique muscle(ICC mean 0.99; ICC range 0.98-1.00; % SEM = 2.33). We conclude that surface electromyography is a reliabledevice that can be used to investigate the lumbar multifidus muscles and internal oblique muscles duringsub-maximal voluntary muscle contraction.