Prevalence of Forward Head Posture in Professional Indian Tabla Player

Background:The Tabla is a percussion instrument with a membranophone that originated in the Indian subcontinent.It consists of two single-headed, small drums with barrel shapes that are somewhat varied in size and shape; daya, also known as dahina, denotes the right and baya, also known as bahina, denotes the left. The tabla player sits with knees folded and back unsupported with the neck slightly bent, shoulders flexed, elbow extended with repetitive wrist and finger movement. Repeated hand movements like wrist flexion- extension, ulnar and radial deviation, striking. Beginner table players will tend to focus their movements on hands and wrists. However, as one gains more experience as a tabla player and starts to increase their speed and volume, they will typically start using more of their shoulders and eventually their back to generate force and power. Thus, as the tabla player with more years of experience showed more risk of musculoskeletal disorders. The study revealed that musicians working in an elevated arm position had a high prevalence of neck and shoulder pain than those working in more neutral position. Playing a percussion instrument demands great force and effort, which may make percussionists prone to playing-related musculoskeletal disorders (PRMDs) of all of the percussion instruments in India, tabla is the most popular. Playing for long and intense periods of practice in uncomfortable postures (Wahlstrorm and Wiklund, 2009) leads to PRMDs. Among Indian percussion instruments it has been reported that Tabla players are found to suffer from PRMDs. Methods: The study enrolled 69 participants. The MB ruler was used to assess the forward head posture in tabla players. Results: Participants were found out to be more in the age group of 24-26 years i.e. 57% (39) and less in the age group of 18-20 years i.e. 20% (14).The total number of participants included in the study was 69, among them 94% of participants are male and only 6% were female. This study concludes that there is prevalence of forward head posture in professional Indian tabla players that is 63.77%