Factors involved in musculoskeletal pain in elementary school students

Abstract

Background: Musculoskeletal pain in elementary school students is a current issue. Known risk factors include: family history of back pain, time spent watching tv or sitting at the computer, gender – female, practicing high intensity performace sports, history of back injury, altered general state of health.

Objectives: This study aims to identify a correlation between the onset of back pain and individual risk factors, including family history, time spent in certain activities (prolonged sitting in front of the tv or computer), physical stresses during sports, and backpack weight.

Materials and methods: The study was done on a sample of 225 students of grades 1 to 4, aged between 7 and 11 years old. The data was gathered through a 32-item questionnaire, in the city of Targu Mures over the period of a week, with the teachers and parents consent.

Results: 65,3% of the students had relatives that weresuffering from back pain, 3,1% have had their back injured at some point, 56% spend between 1 and 2 hours in front of the tv/computer, 60% practiced some form of performance sport and for 30,6% of the students the length of the training session was about 1 hour. Most frequently, pain was localized in the back (16,8%) and shoulder (11,11%). For 85% of the students the weight of their backpack exceeded the limits stated in the current legislation. A relationship between musculoskeletal pain and risk factors -time spent in front of the tv/computer, practicing advanced sports, was found.

Conclusions: A statistically significant relationship was found between musculoskeletal pain and the time spent in front of the tv/computer (for more than 2 hours a day), training in performance sports for more than one hour a day.