The Relationship Between Postural Torticollis Abnormalities and Plagiocephaly on the Early Motor Development Milestones of Lying and Rolling Activities in Infants: A Retrospective Study

ABSTRACT

The study examined how neck muscle imbalance and plagiocephaly affect the lying and rolling activities in 118 infants aged 4 to 6 months with postural torticollis. Outcome measures included age, sex, cervical movement, and plagiocephaly severity. Neck muscle function was assessed with the Muscle Function Scale (MFS), and infant motor abilities in lying and rolling were evaluated through the corresponding dimensions of the Gross Motor Function Measure (GMFM). Multiple regression analysis showed that a better MFS score of the affected neck was significantly associated with improved lying and rolling activities in the GMFM (p < .01), and importantly, the interaction between the plagiocephaly and the MFS scores of the affected neck muscle in these activities was found to be significant (p < .05). These results highlight the need for early intervention in infants with torticollis to address muscle imbalance and plagiocephaly, crucial for early motor development (KCT0008367).

KEYWORDS:

• Motor development
• neck muscle imbalance
• plagiocephaly
• postural torticollis

Supplementary Material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/17518423.2024.2374543

Acknowledgments

The authors thank all the subjects who participated in this study.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Credit Authorship Contribution Statement

Hyun-Suk Park – Conceptualization, Literature Review, Data Collection, Analysis, Writing, and Editing.

Mo-Yeol Kang – Conceptualization, Reviewing, Supervision.

Chi-Whan Choi – Conceptualization, Reviewing, Analysis, Editing

Jung-Wan Koo – Conceptualization, Resources, Review & Editing, Supervision

Yeon-Gyu Jeong – Conceptualization, Resources, Review & Editing, Supervision

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.