Prevalence of back pain among high school students in a municipality in southern Brazil

Abstract

Prevalence of back pain among high school students in a municipality in southern Brazil [I] Prevalência de dor nas costas em escolares do ensino médio em uma cidade no sul do Brasil [A] Cíntia Detsch Fonseca [a] , Cláudia Tarragô Candotti [a] , Matias Noll [a] , Anna Maria Hecker Luz [b] , Antônio Cardoso dos Santos [a] , Carlos Otávio Corso [a] * [a] Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, (UFRGS), Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil [b] Universidade Vale do Rio dos Sinos, (UNISINOS), Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil [R] Abstract Objective: To estimate the prevalence of back pain in adolescent girls, and determine whether this pain is associated with socioeconomic, demographic, anthropometric, and behavioral factors. Methods: This was an epidemiological survey with a representative sample of 495 female high school students, aged 14 to 18 years, in the municipality of São Leopoldo in the southern Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul. Data were collected through a self-administered questionnaire with closed, standardized, coded, and tested questions. Bivariate analysis included the chi-square test (x2) and calculation of prevalence ratios (α<0.05). Results: The prevalence of back pain was 75.2%. The thoracic-lumbar (30.4%) and lumbar (27.7%) regions of the spine were most affected. Among the students with pain, 60.5% reported the severity of their pain to be moderate to severe, and 21.2% reported that the pain prevented them from performing activities of daily living. Regarding associated factors, the pain was more prevalent in overweight/obese students (RP = 1.246, 95% CI: 1.137 to 1.366), who reported carrying a heavy school backpack/bag (PR = 1.187, 95% CI: 1.073 to 1.314) and those who had incorrect posture when picking up objects from the floor (PR = 1.138, 95% CI: 1.031 to 1.256). Conclusions: There was a high prevalence of back pain associated with body mass index, reported weight of the student's school backpack/bag, and posture when picking up objects from the floor.

School Bag Usage, Postural and Behavioral Habits and Its Effect on Back Pain Occurrence Among School Children

“…This result was in agreement with [35,45] who did not find an association between back pain and mode of transport of school supplies. Also, another study conducted among school children aged from 11 to 16 years by [14] they found no significant association between type of school bag carrying school materials and back pain.…”

“…This result was in accordance with study conducted in southern Brazil among school students by [35] they showed that more than half of students affected by pain reported moderate pain, more than one third mild pain and only 5.9% had severe pain. On the contrary, a study by [6] showed that mild pain was prevailing which reported by 44.7% of all children and youth aged 10-19 and nearly every fourth subject reported having experienced strong pain.…”

“…This finding was supported by [35] who estimated back pain prevalence among school students in Brazil. They found that the most of the students responded that the pain frequency was one time per week, or between two and three times per week, and only about seven percent more than four times per week.…”

“…The difference between males and females was not statistically significant. Similarly, Fonseca et al [35] who revealed that more than one fifth of students affected by back pain indicated that the pain prevented them from performing activities of daily living. Likewise, Wirth et al [4] who assessed spinal pain characteristics of adolescent.…”

Questionnaire on body awareness of postural habits in young people: construction and validation

“…When an individual remains seated for an extensive time period, he/ she tends to adopt an inappropriate posture, relaxed and curved, leading to inappropriate postural habits and causing a series of postural compensations and complaints of discomfort and pain. There is an association between inappropriate postural habits and musculoskeletal disorders in teenagers [7] and many factors can corroborate with these body modifications such as the adjustments and adaptations to their own body changes, psychosocial demands [8], questions related to the excessive weight of school backpacks and their use in an asymmetric and inappropriate way [7,9], and ergonomic difficulties [10,11].…”