Comparing the Validity of Non-Invasive Methods in Measuring Thoracic Kyphosis and Lumbar Lordosis

Background: the purpose of this article is to study the validity of each of the non-invasive methods (flexible ruler, spinal mouse, and processing the image versus the one through-Ray radiation (the basic method) and comparing them with each other. Materials and Methods: for evaluating the validity of each of these non-invasive methods, the thoracic Kyphosis and lumber Lordosis angle of 20 students of Birjand University (age mean and standard deviation: 26±2, weight: 72±2.5 kg, height: 169±5.5 cm) through fours methods of flexible ruler, spinal mouse, and image processing and X-ray. Results: the results indicated that the validity of the methods including flexible ruler, spinal mouse, and image processing in measuring the thoracic Kyphosis and lumber Lordosis angle respectively have an adherence of 0.81, 0.87, 0.73, 0.76, 0.83, 0.89 (p > 0.05). As a result, regarding the gained validity against the golden method of X-ray, it could be stated that the three mentioned non-invasive methods have adequate validity. In addition, the one-way analysis of variance test indicated that there existed a meaningful relationship between the three methods of measuring the thoracic Kyphosis and lumber Lordosis, and with respect to the Tukey’s test result, the image processing method is the most precise one. Conclusion as a result, this method could be used along with other non-invasive methods as a valid measuring method.