Exercise interventions to improve postural malalignments in head, neck, and trunk among adolescents, adults, and older people: systematic review of randomized controlled trials

Despite the widespread use of postural correction in exercise interventions, limited experimental evidence exists for its effectiveness. The present study aimed to systematically review the literature on the efficacy of exercise interventions in improving postural malalignment in head, neck, and trunk. A systematic review was performed by screening four scientific databases (MEDLINE, Web of Science, EBSCO, and Cochrane database) for published randomized controlled trials (RCTs) in English from 1996–2019. The review followed the PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) statement guidelines. Two researchers independently performed study screening, extracting data and assessing the risk of bias for each included study using the Cochrane Collaboration tool for evaluating the risk of bias. A total of 22 RCTs comprising 1,209 participants were identified for inclusion in the review. There was a high risk of bias across most of the included studies (12 studies). Only two studies were classified as low risk of bias, and eight studies were classified as moderate risk of bias. The intervention duration ranged from 2 to 13 weeks, frequency from 2 to 4 days per week, and duration of each session between 15 to 60 min. The insufficiency and quality of included studies did not allow an integrated assessment of the efficacy of exercise interventions on postural malalignments; however, the positive effects noticed in most of the studies indicate some advantages but underscores the necessity of adequately designed RCTs in this field.