The effect of an eight week selected corrective exercises program on non-structural scoliosis deformity

Introduction: exercise programs is one of the common methods for correction of scoliosis deformity, there is little research on correction of the non-structural type and several defects have been reported in previous studies. Thus, scientific evidence is little for supporting the optimal effectiveness of the exercise programs. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of an eight-week corrective exercises program on non-structural scoliosis deformity.
Material and Method: Thirty male students with scoliosis angle less than 20 degrees, the average of age 21.66±1.07 years, weight67.59±6.41 kg and height176.03±5.76 cm, purposefully selected from the population and then randomly divided into 15 people per experimental and control groups. Then, the individuals in experimental group participated in an 8-week exercise program, while the subjects in control group only performed their ADL routinely. Photogrammetric method was used to measure the angle of lateral curvature of the spine in subjects from posterior view.
Result: Data were analyzed with using statistical methods (paired and independent samples t-test) between pre-test and post-test. The results showed that the mean angle of scoliosis experimental group was significantly decreased in the post-test (P=0.001). Furthermore, based on Cohen's d-value, the efficiency of the corrective exercises program was large (ES=0.81).
Conclusion: we can conclude that the efficiency of the corrective exercise program used in this study in reduction of scoliosis angle is desirable.