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  Background & Objectives: Anatomical position is the base for normal posture evaluation. Any deviation from this posture can create problems for an individual. Common faulty postures appear at the head, vertebral column, shoulder girdles, pelvis and other parts of the body. High flexibility of the primary school children’s skeleton increases the chance of faulty postures. Limited athletic activities of Iranian girls can lead to postural deficiencies among them, which can be followed by some irreversible complications. This study evaluated the rate of faulty postures and their risk factors among primary school girls and recommended some procedures for prevention and physical treatment of them.

  Methods: This descriptive study was conducted on all 261 students of Ghaem Motlagh primary school. The subjects ranged between 7 and 11 in age. The data were collected through physical examination carried out by an anatomist and a physiotherapist. These data were analysed using SPSS softwere (ver.6).

  Results: The finding showed that, 8.8% of the cases had abnormal rotation of the head. In lumbar region 1.5% involved hypolordosis and 6.9% hyperlordosis. Our results showed that there is a significant relationship between scapula winging and dominant hand (p=0.001).�

  Conclusion: According to the results, it is suggested that sport activities under the guidance of a physical therapist, which involve all the body parts should be encouraged especially in girls schools.

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Background & objectives: Vitamin D deficiency and poor sleep quality are important factors in health disorders and are common among women. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of physical activity on vitamin D levels and improving sleep quality in women.
Methods: This descriptive-analytical study was conducted on active and inactive women (85 individuals in each group), aged 30-48 years that were selected using convenience randomized sampling. The Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Questionnaire was used to assess sleep quality and a score higher than 5 was determined as poor sleep quality. For analysis of data, Kruskal Wallis and Mann Whitney U tests and Spearman coefficient were used at a significance level of 0.05.
Results: The results showed that 54.12% and 28.82% of women had a deficiency and insufficient levels of vitamin D, respectively, and 61.8% had poor sleep quality. Active women had higher levels of vitamin D and better sleep quality compared to inactive women (p<0.05). There was also a direct relationship between vitamin D levels and sleep quality in active and inactive women. However, this association was significant in active women with vitamin D deficiency and inactive women with different vitamin D status.
Conclusion: It seems that physical activity can increase vitamin D levels and improve sleep quality in women. But vitamin D status, especially its deficiency, may be one of the most important determinants of sleep quality in active and inactive women.