Alves, MEMarinho, DACarneiro, DNAlves, JForte, PNevill, AMMorais, JE2020-07-152020-07-152020-04-23Alves, M.E.; Marinho, D.A.; Carneiro, D.N.; Alves, J.; Forte, P.; Nevill, A.M.; Morais, J.E. (2020) A Visual Scan Analysis Protocol for Postural Assessment at School in Young Students. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 2020, 17, 2915.1660-460132340242 (pubmed)10.3390/ijerph17082915http://hdl.handle.net/2436/623348© 2020 The Authors. Published by MDPI. This is an open access article available under a Creative Commons licence. The published version can be accessed at the following link on the publisher’s website: https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17082915© 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. The aim of this study was to compare the X-ray diagnosis with a non-invasive method for spine alignment assessment adopting a visual scan analysis with a plumb line and simetograph in middle-school students. The sample of this study was composed of 31 males and 50 females with an average age of 14.23 (± 3.11) years. The visual scan analysis was assessed at a school; whereas, the X-ray was performed in a hospital. The Wilcoxon signed-rank test was used to assess the differences between methods and scoliosis classifications (non-accentuated <10º and scoliosis >10º), and the Kappa was used to assess the agreement between methods. The comparisons between the methods revealed non-significant differences (z = −0.577; p = 0.564), with almost perfect agreement between tests (K = 0.821; p < 0.001). Moreover, no statistical significance was observed between methods by the scoliosis classification (z = −1.000; p = 0.317), with almost perfect agreement between tests (K = 0.888; p < 0.001). This research supports the conclusion that there are no significant differences between the two methods. Therefore, it should be highlighted that this field test should be used by physical education teachers in their classes, or in a school context, in order to determine misalignments or scoliosis prevalence among middle-school students.application/pdfenLicence for published version: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Internationalhttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/spine alignmentposturevisual scanchildrenx-rayJournal article1660-4601International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health2020-06-29