Inter and intra observer reliability of the Ovako working posture analysis system: working posture analysis in senior physiotherapy and rehabilitation students

Purpose: This study was planned to investigate the inter/intra observer reliability of the Ovako Working Posture Analysis System (OWAS) and to evaluate the body postures of senior physiotherapy students during intervention with the OWAS method in terms of ergonomic risk. Method: To evaluate the postures during the study, digital photographs of 60 students were taken from three different perspectives: front, back, and side. The photographs were manually scored by three physiotherapists using the OWAS method. In the first stage, the inter/intra-observer reliability of the OWAS method was examined, and in the second stage, ergonomic risk analysis was performed on the OWAS total score. Results: The study included 49 female and 11 male physiotherapy and rehabilitation senior students with a mean age of 22.45±1.09 (21-26). Inter/intra observer reliability was found to be good (ICCIrO=0.815; ICCIaO=0.872; p