Musculoskeletal Pain Among Polish Music School Students

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To assess the prevalence and intensity of musculoskeletal pain and to estimate probability of developing playing-related musculoskeletal disorders, depending on risk factors, including gender, years of playing the musical instrument, frequency of practice (number of days per week), average daily practice time, and habitual physical activity level, in young instrumentalists. METHODS: A total of 225 instrumentalists aged 10–18 years, including 107 string-players, 64 keyboardists, and 54 wind-players, were investigated. The Nordic Musculoskeletal Questionnaire (NMQ) together with a numerical visual-analogue pain intensity scale (VAS) was used to assess the participants’ musculoskeletal pain. RESULTS: The young instrumentalists most often complained of pain located in the neck (60.4%), wrists (44.4%), and upper (41.7%) and lower back (38.2%) areas. Girls complained of musculoskeletal pain significantly more often than the boys. A probability of the pain symptoms was increased with each consecutive year of practice (OR 1.135; 95%CI 1.021–1.261). CONCLUSIONS: Musculoskeletal pain in various body parts had already commenced at a young age in our sample of music students, and there was a gender difference (girls were more often affected). Results of our study suggest that an early prophylaxis of playing-related musculoskeletal disorders is needed among young musicians playing the various instruments.

Approaches to and Treatment Strategies for Playing-Related Pain Problems Among Czech Instrumental Music Students: An Epidemiological Study

“…Concerning gender, females were found to be more vulnerable to PRP problems. This is in keeping with the majority of previous studies reporting that females are more frequently affected at student 8,10,17,18,21,24,[28][29][30][31][32] and professional levels. 15,33 With respect to age, age of onset of PRP, and hours of practicing, no gender differences were observed, suggesting that female susceptibility to PRP could be due to anatomical differences, such as less muscular strength, 9 joint laxity, hypermobility, 10,34,35 or hand muscle weakness.…”

Have musicians’ musculoskeletal symptoms been thoroughly addressed? A systematic mapping review

“…Some 22 studies also investigated the association between different MSS outcomes. Similar to the extent/severity studies, the majority (86%) of the studies of risk factors reported general symptom outcomes[27,28,30,38,[40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48][49][50]53,54,60,64,65,69,71,74,76,[79][80][81][82][83][84][85][86][87][88][91][92][93][95][96][97][106][107][108]110,111,115,116,119,122,125,126,[129][130][131][133][134][135][138][139][140][141][142][154][155]…”

Sintomas osteomusculares e desempenho ocupacional: um estudo entre músicos instrumentistas no contexto do Distrito Federal, Brasil.

“…Em estudo realizado junto a população holandesa, Kok et al 3 observaram a ocorrência de sintomas osteomusculares em 89% de uma amostra composta por 83 musicistas, similar ao descrito por estudos conduzidos em países europeus [4][5][6] , África do Sul 7 e Austrália 8 . Observa-se ainda que o desenvolvimento de queixas osteomusculares é duas vezes mais frequente entre músicos quando comparados a população geral 3 .…”

“…Diversos fatores são elencados como agravantes para a saúde deste grupo profissional: a elevada exigência que o instrumento impõe ao corpo, incluindo alterações posturais impostas durante a prática musical e o transporte do mesmo 3,9 ; o início precoce da atividade, geralmente entre infância e adolescência 5 ; extenso período de prática musical e o acúmulo de funções do instrumentista dentro de uma orquestra sinfônica ou banda 10 .…”

“…Observa-se que a incidência de sintomas de dor musculoesquelética entre músicos pode ser percebida desde a infância: Nawrocka et al 5 descrevem a presença de dor em membros superiores em aproximadamente 44% de estudantes de música entre 10 e 18 anos, sendo crescente o aumento da incidência de queixas osteomusculares a cada ano consecutivo de prática 5 .…”