Frequency of Shoulder Asymmetry Among Adult Females Carrying Bag on any Shoulder in Islamabad

Abstract

Background: Individuals use shoulder bags to carry personal things of day to day life. The bag is one of the few types of manual load carriage that are used by females. Shoulder bag weight and its poor carrying pattern cause abnormal changes that result in poor posture. Objective: To determine the frequency of shoulder asymmetry among adult females carrying a shoulder bag. Methodology: A cross sectional survey of 202 females aged between 19-35 years, selected using non probability convenient sampling from Islamabad. The duration of study was January 2018 to June 2018 and data were collected from Shifa Tameer-e-Milat University Islamabad, Pakistan. The data was collected through one self-structured and two standards [Quick DASH (Disability of Arm, Shoulder and Hand) and NPRS (Numeric pain rating scale)] questionnaire. Postural Grid was used to assess the asymmetry of shoulders. Data analysis was done through SPSS 21. Results: The mean age of participants was 26.80±4.90 years. The results showed that the majority 75.2% participants have shoulder asymmetry on Postural Grid. NPRS showed that the majority 76.7% of the participants did not have any pain and 76.2% of participants don’t have any disability. Conclusion: This study concluded that the majority of the female population carrying bags on any shoulder have shoulder asymmetry as compared to the other shoulder but this asymmetry is not causing any pain or disability in the majority of the females. Keywords: Posture, Shoulder Pain