Risk factors for neck and shoulder pain among schoolchildren and adolescents

Abstract

Aim: To evaluate the potential risk factors for neck and shoulder pain among schoolchildren. Methods: Demographic, physical/leisure activity, school-related and psychosocial factors for neck/shoulder pain were evaluated in a crosssectional study of 1611 schoolchildren aged 11-14 years. Results: Neck and shoulder complaints were reported in 27.9 and 19.0% of the sample, respectively. According to multivariate logistic regression models, high desk height (odds ratio (OR) = 2.23, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.22-4.07), forward-inclined seat pan (OR = 2.38, 95% CI: 1.40-4.05), time spent (30-60 min/day) carrying school bag (OR = 1.61, 95% CI: 1.16-2.23) and psychosocial factors (OR = 1.95, 95% CI: 1.03-3.72) independently increased the risk of neck pain, while low body mass index (OR = 0.63, 95% CI: 0.42-0.95) decreased it. Time spent on watching TV (OR = 1.45, 95% CI: 1.02-2.06), backward-inclined seat backrest (OR = 1.62, 95% CI: 1.02-2.58), curved seat backrest (OR = 1.80, 95% CI: 1.05-3.08), too much homework (OR = 1.45, 95% CI: 1.03-2.03) and psychosocial factors (conduct problems) (OR = 1.63, 95% CI: 1.07-2.46) independently increased the risk of shoulder pain, while prosocial behaviour (OR = 0.56, 95% CI: 0.35-0.90) decreased it. Conclusion: Both physical and psychosocial factors influenced the risk for neck/shoulder pain in school-aged children, suggesting that they should be considered in assessment and treatment of such symptoms in this population.Key words: classroom furniture; Iran; musculoskeletal; psychological; school bag; schoolchildren.What is already known on this topic 1 Neck or shoulder complaints are fairly common among school children and adolescents, but their risk factors are controversial or not well-established due to limited research in this area. What this paper adds1 School-related (e.g. classroom furniture, homework and time spent carrying school bag) and psychosocial factors were found to affect the risk of neck/shoulder complaints, but physical activity, having a job, using a computer or playing games and school bag weight had no effect.Recent studies have shown that neck or shoulder complaints are fairly common among school children and adolescents. 1-5 According to the literature, the reported incidence of neck and shoulder pain in children and adolescents ranges from 11 to 45%. [1][2][3][4][5][6][7] There is evidence that the presence of musculoskeletal pain (including neck/shoulder pain) in childhood and adolescence can be an important factor for the occurrence of these pains in adulthood. 3,8,9 Thus, a better understanding of the risk factors associated with these pains among children and adolescents has the potential for a notable impact on the future workforce. To prevent pain, it is crucial to understand the factors that contribute to neck and shoulder pain in children and adolescents.However, a review of the literature indicates that unlike studies on low back pain, few studies have evaluated neck and shoulder pain in school-aged children.2,4,10 In addition, most of the exi...

Comparison of Musculoskeletal Disorder Risk based on Gender in High School Students

“…Musculoskeletal disorders are very common health problem in all age groups and genders throughout the world (Vos T et al, 2012). Recent evidence suggests that musculoskeletal disorders are very common in school children and adolescents (Dianat et al, 2017). This has become a major health problem and has burdened people and communities (Shan et al, 2013;Scarabottolo et al, 2017).…”

Risk factors for low back pain among the elementary school students, using penalized logistic regression, Iran

“…The prevalence of LBP has been reported to exceed more than 50% among those who watched TV for more than 2 hours a day [41]. Similar findings have indicated that the situation is aggravated when wat ching TV is accompanied by sitting in a relatively static position for a long time, unsuitable sitting postures, and low levels of PA [42,43].…”

Multigroup latent class model of musculoskeletal pain combinations in children/adolescents: identifying high-risk groups by gender and age

“…The mean weight of the participants were 49.7 (SD 11.36) kg; [girls ≤13 years: 48.1 (SD 10.5) kg, girls ≥14 years: 47.2 (SD 11.7) kg, boys ≤13 years: 51.1 (SD 10.1) kg and boys ≥14 years: 53.2 (SD 12.2) kg] and BMI, 19.9 (3.83) kg/m 2 [girls ≤13 years: 19.6 (SD 3.8) kg/m 2 , girls ≥14 years: 20.0 (SD 4.2) kg/m 2 , boys ≤13 years: 19.8 (SD 3.3) kg/m 2 and boys ≥14 years: 20.3 (SD 4.0) kg/m 2 ]. More details on characteristics of the physical leisure activity, use of schoolbags and psychological trait among the schoolchildren are presented in [ 5 , 6 ].…”

“…However, as in any epidemiological study, there may be possible limitation with regard to the accuracy and reliability of self-reported data on MSP as the outcome measure. However, as it has been acknowledged, this may be the only measure to understand whether and how the school children and adolescents feel any pain or discomfort, especially in large-scale populations [ 5 , 14 ]. As another limitation, we performed the LCA in a cross-sectional study and have focused on gender- and age-specific MSP clusters in the population but we didn’t taking into account the risk factors; to better find the relationship between the risk factors and MSP combinations in a LCA scheme, stronger epidemiological studies (case-control and cohort designs) are recommended.…”

“…Recent evidence has shown that MSP is very common among school children and youth [ 5 – 7 ]. According to the literature, the reported incidence of neck, shoulder and spinal pain in school children and adolescents ranges from 7% to 74% [ 5 , 6 , 8 – 10 ]. There is evidence that MSP in childhood and adolescence is a contributory factor for experiencing such complaints in adulthood [ 11 – 13 ].…”