"Evaluation of Static and Dynamic Postural Balance in Children With Thoracic Hyperkyphosis"

The study was included chidren with hyperkyphosis at the İstanbul University-Cerrahpaşa, Faculty of Health Sciences, Department of Physiotherapy and Rehabilitation. G*Power 3.1.9.2 program was used to calculate the sample size. Due to the absence of MCID value for the Biodex Balance System in the literature while sample size calculation, the average values for males and females are 3.83 and 3.05 based on the "Overall Stability Index" based on the dominant side from a similar study conducted with healthy young adults; standard deviation values were placed in the formula as 1.03 and 1.13 (σ). (power=80%, α=0.05, significance level 2-tailed, and effect size d = 0.73). A total of 62 cases were decided to be included in the study, with 31 individuals per group. Participants were evaluated once by the physical therapist. Evaluation consist of demographic information form, Biodex Balance System, visual analog scale, "Hand-held" dynamometer, range of motion, pektoralis minor muscle flexibility, triple-hop distance test, 20-m sprint test, Physical Activity Questionnaire for Children, Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory, functional reach test and occiput-wall distance. SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Sciences) 22 statistical program was used for the statistical analysis of the data. Normality was assessed using the Shapiro-Wilk test. The "Chi-Square Test" was used to compare the difference between groups for categorical variables such as gender, dominant side, and educational status. The statistical analysis for group comparisons was performed using the "Mann-Whitney U Test" for non-parametric samples. Correlation analysis between the data was done with "Spearmann r Test". In all tests, a significance level of 0.05 (5%) was used.