Reliability of postural measures in elite badminton players using Posture Pro 8.

The Posture Pro software is used for photogrammetry assessment of posture and has been commercially available for several years. Along with symmetry-related measures, a Posture Number® is calculated to reflect the sum of postural deviations. Our aim was to investigate the intra- and inter-rater reliability of measures extracted using the Posture Pro 8 software without using reference markers on subjects. Four raters assessed the standing posture of 40 badminton players (20 males, 20 females) from anterior, lateral, and posterior photographs. Thirty-three postural measures were extracted using visual landmarks as guide. Reliability was quantified using intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC) and typical error of measurement (TEM). Overall, the intra-rater reliability was considered good to excellent for nearly all measures. However, only two measures had excellent inter-rater reliability, with 13 and 18 measures exhibiting good and fair inter-rater reliability, respectively. Posture Pro specific measures (n = 9) exhibited good-to-excellent intra-rater and fair-to-excellent inter-rater reliability, with small-to-moderate and small-to-large TEM, respectively. Overall, the Posture Pro 8 software can be considered a reliable tool for assessing a range of posture-relevant measures from photographs, particularly when performed by the same examiner. The Posture Number® demonstrated generally acceptable intra- and inter-rater reliability. Nonetheless, investigations on the validity, sensitivity, and interpretation of this measure are essential to confirm its clinical relevance.