The effect of a posture cueing shirt on posture and perceived pain during a computer task in healthy participants

Background and aims: Spine-related pain is the largest musculoskeletal problem on a global scale and with the growing burden of the problem, many treatment strategies have been proposed. A recent intervention that has gained popularity amongst people with spine-related pain is usage of a posture-cueing shirt for self-management of their condition. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of a posture-cueing shirt on posture and perceived pain during a functional task.

Methods: Thirty, healthy male participants were recruited for this single-session experimental study. Participants were seated at an office workstation and instructed to perform a 15-min computer-writing task under three conditions: wearing a posture cuing shirt, a compression shirt or no shirt. The order of conditions was randomized in a balanced manner. After each task, participants rated any potential pain on a 0-10 NRS scale. At minutes 1 and 15 during the writing task, a still image (lateral view) was taken and used for calculating head and shoulder angles.

Results: Wearing a posture-cueing shirt resulted in significantly lower pain scores (NRS 0 [0-1]) compared to wearing no shirt (NRS 1 [0-2], P=0.012). No difference was seen when comparing the posture-cueing shirt to the compression shirt. No significant differences in head or shoulder angles were observed when comparing any of the conditions.

Conclusions: The posture-cuing shirt did not affect posture but it did result in significantly lower pain intensity compared to no shirt. However, the observed difference is small and like clinically irrelevant.