Back pain and its risk factors in Brazilian adolescents : a longitudinal study

• Autor(a) principal: Noll, Matias
• Data de Publicação: 2020
• Outros Autores: Rosa, Bruna Nichele da, Candotti, Cláudia Tarragô, Vieira, Adriane, Loss, Jefferson Fagundes
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Institucional da UFRGS
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10183/222311
• topic: Lombalgia; Adolescentes; Estudantes; Postura corporal; Epidemiologia; Back pain; Prospective; Habits; Posture; Students; Adolescent; Epidemiology

Owing to the lack of longitudinal studies in Latin American countries, we aimed to evaluate back pain and its risk factors in a 3-year longitudinal study of Brazilian adolescents. We analysed data of 525 adolescents (aged 11–16 years) attending primary school (fifth to eighth grade) in Brazil. The students were administered the self-reported Back Pain and Body Posture Evaluation Instrument (BackPEI) questionnaire in 2011 and at a follow-up evaluation that was conducted 3 years later (2014). Back pain was the outcome variable; the exposure variables included exercise, behavioural, hereditary and postural factors. Generalized estimating equations were used to perform a Poisson regression model with robust variance to evaluate the risk factors for back pain. The prevalence of back pain at baseline was 56% (n = 294); this increased significantly at the 3-year follow-up evaluation to 65.9% (n = 346). The frequency of experiencing back pain also significantly increased after 3 years in both boys (p = 0.002) and girls (p = 0.001). The prevalence of back pain increased significantly in adolescents up to the age of 13 years, stabilized in those aged 14 years and older and was higher among girls. A family history of back pain (in the parents), watching television for lengthy periods and carrying a backpack asymmetrically were predictors for back pain.