association between opium smoking and neck and upper spine posture disorders

Background: many studies have shown that non-ergonomic positioning of the spine is one of the main causes of postural deformity. in this regard, opium smoking requires sitting in non-ergonomic positions, which increases the possibility of posture disorders due to exposure for several hours a day and over many years. objectives: this study aimed to compare neck pain and disability, forward head posture (fhp), and the curvature of the thoracic spine (thoracic hyperkyphosis [thk]) in opium users and non-drug users. methods: in this comparative cross-sectional study, 80 opium smokers were compared with 74 non-drug users in terms of craniovertebral angle (fhp), thk, and neck pain (visual analog scale [vas]) and disability (neck disability index [ndi]). data were analyzed by kolmogorov-smirnov and independent t-tests using spss version 23. results: the difference between the 2 groups was significant in all variables, including vas (p = 0.004), ndi (p < 0.001), craniovertebral angle (p = 0.003), and thk (p = 0.006). conclusions: forward head posture, thk, neck pain, and neck disability are more prevalent in opium smokers than non-drug users. this could be due to the long hours of the non-ergonomic position while smoking opium.