Promoting community health in the third world: "Straighten Up" in Bangalore, India

Introduction: Straighten Up India: Bangalore is a collaborative spinal health promotion educational and research outreach. This outreach aims to improve the quality of life of a markedly underserved population. A country of over one billion people with a high prevalence of spinal disability, India has only a handful of doctors of chiropractic. Methods: Straighten Up India brought together multiple partners to study the prevalence of postural disorders and to train health care workers to educate the children of the urban poor and workers in simple postural exercises and spine healthy lifestyle practices. Straighten Up India emphasized empowerment, leadership development and positive reinforcement in its instructional methodologies. The initiative mobilized the local population to improve spinal health through a series of meetings and workshops with strategic community leaders and selected groups of workers. Results: Straighten Up's inclusive service-oriented vision and outreaches have attracted many influential partners including: the Commonwealth Association for Mental Handicap and Developmental Disabilities, the Child and Adolescent Health and Development Cluster of the World Health Organization, the Occupational Health and Development Cluster of the World Health Organization, the SOLVE Health Promotion in the Workplace Cluster of the International Labor Organization of the United Nations, the Association of Chiropractic Colleges, the Chiropractic Diplomatic Corps, Life West Chiropractic College and the Ragiv Ghandi University of the Health Sciences and many others. Conclusion: Straighten Up India: Bangalore's collaborative empowering methods have been highly successful. The citizens of Bangalore are making positive strides in actively improving their spinal health.