An Overview of Cervical Spine Posture Assessment Methods

Assessment of posture is not an easy task, but it is an integral part of physical evaluation and designing a treatment protocol. Various postural measurement methods have been developed and their validity and reliability have been established. This review provides an overview of all the methods and critically analyses them. To give a comprehensive review of all the available methods that are used to assess cervical spine posture and briefly compare their reliability, validity, advantages, and disadvantages. A thorough search was performed on PubMed/Medline, Scopus, ScienceDirect, and Web of Science. Studies assessing cervical spine posture, irrespective of the age of the participants and the device being used in the study were included. Any study including participants with pain, or any other pathology was excluded. Data from included studies was collated and compared to conduct the study. After refining the search strategy, studies indicated various methods used in clinics and/or academics such as visual assessment method, radiographs, photogrammetry, plumb line method, simple observation method, and devices such as inclinometer, flexicurve, and electronic head posture instrument. All the included studies were analysed to determine the method most preferred by the clinicians. It was observed that the choice of method to be used for the cervical posture assessment depends on various factors such as the preference of the clinician, patient population, and ease of use. The non-invasive methods provided immediate results and hence were favored. The most preferred method among the clinicians was the visual assessment method.