Body posture and the state of mood in women

Abstract

In the clinical practice of health professionals, it is observed that body posture can reveal the current emotional state. Emotional states can generate habitual gestures and postures that continue even after the emotion has ceased. The objective was to identify postural changes and variables found in the mood state in women. After project submission and approval to the CEP of the Lutheran University of Brazil (ULBRA), 15 women with a mean age of 39.6 years, regardless of color, race, or social class participated in the study. The sample was by convenience, being recruited through invitations on social networks. The research was carried out at the Walk Clinic of Exercise, in Charqueadas/RS. The instruments used were a sociodemographic and clinical questionnaire to characterize the sample, the Brunel Mood Scale (Brums), and the DIPA v13 (Digital Image based Postural Assessment) to assess posture. The results were presented in the form of descriptive statistics. It was found that increased tension and mental confusion for women with head changes in the sagittal plane and who also showed decreased vigor. In this study, it was verified that for women with low vigor, there is head alteration and that they present tension and mental confusion. More studies should be carried out with different methodologies in larger samples to enable the mapping and delineation of most postural changes related to emotional states and mood disorders, with due application in the clinical practice of health professionals.