A comparative study of musculoskeletal imbalances in professional musicians

Introduction: Playing the instrument in different groups of society is increasing day by day. Therefore, it seems necessary to pay attention to musculoskeletal imbalances and their problems in musicians. Martials and Methods: Ninety instrumentalists, including 26 wood wind players (age: 28.46±4.62 year, BMI: 26.59±2.11), 37 string players (age: 28.18±7 year, BMI: 24.92±3.60), and 27 percussionists (age: 31.88±6.6 years, BMI: 24.95±3.32) were selected to participate in this study. Upper and lower extremities were assessed. For statistical analysis ANOVA, Scheffe and Kruskal- Wallis statistical tests were performed in SPSS version 16 with a significance level of 0.05. Results: The results of this study did not show significant differences between the degree of musculoskeletal imbalances of kyphosis and lordosis between the study groups (P˃0.05). Results in musculoskeletal imbalances of scoliosis (sig= 0.001), forward head (sig= 0.001), uneven shoulder (sig= 0.001), torticollis (sig= 0.001), scapular dyskinesia (sig= 0.006) were showed the significant differences between the groups (P˂0.05). Conclusion: According to the results, some musculoskeletal imbalances in the group of wood wind instrumentalists showed a higher intensity and prevalence. These variabilities between different groups of musicians indicate different physical and postural needs to play different instruments.