Effect of postural change on shoulder joint internal and external rotation range of motion in healthy adults in their 20s

Objective: We aimed to investigate differences of range of motion in measuring shoulder internal rotation (IR) and external rotation (ER) resulting from posture change in manual scapular stabilization in prone, hook-lying, sitting, and standing positions in healthy young adults. Design: Cross-sectional study. Methods: This study included healthy young adults who agreed to participate after a thorough explanation about the study purpose and methods. A clinometer was used to measure shoulder rotation. Measurements of shoulder rotation according to postural change were performed in prone, hook-lying, sitting, and standing positions. The repeated measures analysis of variance was used to compare between-group differences in postural change. Results: The lower the posture, the greater the average value of IR angle. In contrast, the higher the posture, the greater the average value of the external rotation angle. In active and passive IR with posture change, there was difference in average value but with no statistical significance. In active and passive ER, there was a statistically significant difference between prone and sitting, prone and standing, hook-lying and sitting, hook-lying and standing, and sitting and standing position (p<0.05). Conclusions: Our findings suggest that postural change should be considered in order to increase the strength or range of motion of the internal and external rotation of the patient s shoulder joint.