Low back pain and disability in 14‐year‐old schoolchildren

Abstract

In this cross-sectional prevalence study in 1503 14-year-old Finnish schoolchildren (n = 1503) low back pain was found to be the third most common form of pain interfering with schoolwork or leisure time during the past 12 months. The lifetime cumulative incidence of low back pain was 30% and that of sciatica 1.8%. Of the 417 pupils who had experienced low back pain at some time, 39% had suffered during the past month; 65% recovered in one month from the last pain episode, while 35.2% of those reporting disabling low back pain during the past year were aware of recurrent or continual pain. Thus, 7.8% (n = 107) of the whole population could be classified as "low back pain chronics": 86% of the low back pain chronics had trouble with at least one of the daily activities listed, most commonly with sitting at school. Excluding pain in the extremities or sciatica, girls reported various pains more commonly than boys. Moreover, girls reporting recurrent low back pain had more trouble with their daily activities due to pain than boys (p < 0.001), even though the recovery from the last pain episode took the same time in boys and girls. The pupils who had had sciatica at some time, in addition to recurrent low back pain, had more trouble with the 10 daily activities than others with recurrent low back pain (p = 0.014).

Is insufficient quantity and quality of sleep a risk factor for neck, shoulder and low back pain? A longitudinal study among adolescents

“…In the same study, the 6-month prevalence of LBP was 14% in girls and 11% in boys at 16 years, and 17% in girls and 13% in boys at 18 years. The 1-year prevalence of NP/SP varied between 19 and 78% in girls and 10 and 63% in boys aged 14-18 years [34,41], while the 1-year prevalence of LBP varied between 20 and 52% in girls and 15 and 49% in boys aged 13-16 years [13,41,48].…”

Physical activity and low-back pain in schoolchildren

“…The occurrence increases with age, especially in the early teen-years [1, 2, 9, 10] so that, by age 14-17, 11-71% will have experienced at least one episode of LBP [1][2][3][4][5][9][10][11]. Recurrent LBP during childhood seems to occur among 5-19% of all children [4,5,9], and LBP in childhood may be a forerunner of LPB in adult life [12].…”

“…Recurrent LBP during childhood seems to occur among 5-19% of all children [4,5,9], and LBP in childhood may be a forerunner of LPB in adult life [12]. Findings concerning an association with gender have been ambiguous [1,2,5,[7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14].…”

Streamlining the Evaluation of Low Back Pain in Children

“…Because there is a high cumulative prevalence of pediatric back pain and close to one-tenth of all pediatric patients with this condition seek medical attention [4,9,20,26], traditional comprehensive back pain workups, without clear published guidelines, have great potential for inefficiency and waste. The potential for unnecessary or redundant studies increases because the majority of these children have MBP without an identifiable organic disorder [11].…”

“…However, epidemiologic evidence has indicated pediatric low back pain may be much more prevalent than previously perceived [1,9,20,26]. Among juvenile and adolescent athletes, back pain is common [4] with one study reporting a 79% rate of back pain compared with 38% in age-matched control subjects [28].…”