A Postural Study Comparing Sitting on the Floor Versus Sitting in a Chair While Playing Video Games.

A Postural Analysis of Children Playing Video Games Sitting on the Floor vs. Sitting in a Chair: A Randomised Controlled Trial

To determine if sitting in a chair or sitting on the floor lends itself to better posture while playing video games.

Upon completion of the parental consent form, each test subject will be instructed to flip a two-sided coin to determine the sitting position of the test subject. If the flip reveals a "heads", the child will be instructed to sit in a chair; chairs will be appropriately sized to allow the child to rest his/her feet on the ground. If the flip reveals a "tails", the child will be instructed to sit on a small carpet piece that measures 2-feet by 2-feet. Each test subject will be taken to their gaming station which will sit approximately 8 feet away from a 55-inch flat screen television that will be on a 30-inch table and handed a wireless controller. Two gaming stations will be available with one featuring the game Lego Batman and the other featuring Lego Indiana Jones with both gaming stations testing simultaneously. The test subjects will be told they can play for 5 minutes with a Physical Therapist at each station to monitor and record the test subjects' positioning.

Forward Head Position (FHP), Rounded Shoulder Position (RSP), and Thoracic spine (T/s)-Lumbar spine (L/s) positions were scored. Subscale scores of 0-3 for each FHP, RSP, and T/s L/s position were obtained. Score 0 was a perfect posture score, Score 1 was 0-1 inches out of alignment. Score 2 was 1-2 inches out of alignment. Score 3 was 2-3 inches out of alignment. Subscale scores were combined for a total score with a minimum value of 0 and a maximum value of 9. 0 being a perfect posture score, 9 being the worst postural score.

Inclusion Criteria: English and Spanish Speaking Exclusion Criteria: Non-english or non-spanish speaking