Comparison of Shoulder, Trunk and Neck Muscle Function with Glenohumeral Joint Disorders in Army Officers with and without Upper Cross Syndrome

One of the leading groups that are susceptible to Upper Cross syndrome are army personnel. Due to having more physical activities, the army officers are more likely to be exposed to Upper Cross syndrome. In this line, the present study aims to comparatively investigate the relationship between the performance of the shoulder, neck, and body muscles among the army personnel having this syndrome with those not being exposed to it.

This research is cross-sectional regarding the time, applied research in terms of theme, and causal-comparative in terms of methodology or strategy. Research population of current research included one hundred and twenty male army officers whose hometown was Kermanshah and ranged in age from thirty to forty-five years old with at least seven years of experience. Having taken arrival and exiting requirements into consideration, a number of seventy people were selected and assigned to two equal groups, named officers having Upper Cross syndrome and those not having this syndrome, by using purposeful and convenient sampling designs. After getting acquainted with the quality of the research and organizing the research procedure, the intended data was collected. Different types of instruments including cameras, adaptable ruler, and dynamometer were used to measure perturbed head, rounded shoulder, kyphosis, and isometric contraction of the muscles in the shoulder, neck, and trunk respectively. Statistical analysis of the raw data was performed by SPSS version 23 and was presented in two descriptive and inferential sections.

People with the upper cross syndrome with a mean (age = 34.85±3.57 years, height = 178±0.04 cm, weight = 76.77±11.82 kg) and people without syndrome with a mean (age = 34.02±2.93 years, height = 179±0.05 cm, weight = 79.91±11.01 kg) that statistical analysis showed that at a significance level of 0.05% there is no significant difference between demographic characteristics. The results show that there is a significant difference between shoulder, neck, and trunk muscle function with glenohumeral joint disorders in soldiers with and without upper cross syndrome (P<0.05).

Given the findings of the present study, it can be observed that the fixed and repetitive positioning pattern in the syndrome group, due to the type and extent of working with computer and creation of fixed posture, was effective on muscular power and shoulder movement range. This issue can be less observed in the group without the syndrome because of the type of occupational activity, which can be indicative of the positive effect of correct positioning pattern during the activity on the happening of shoulder movement disorder.