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. 2020 Jul 29;7(3):562-573.
doi: 10.3934/publichealth.2020045. eCollection 2020.

Back pain in elementary schoolchildren is related to screen habits

Erivelton Fernandes França  1   2 , Michel Monteiro Macedo  1 , Fernando Francisco Pazello Mafra  1 , Gabrielle Mitico Miyake  3 , Romildo Torres da Silva  1 , Tania Regina de França  2 , Thyago Ribeiro Dos Santos  4 , João Pedro da Silva Junior  4 , Victor Keihan Rodrigues Matsudo  4 , Nelson Morini Junior  1 , Eduardo Natali Della Valentina  2 , Fábio Dupart Nascimento  1 , Rodrigo Álvaro Brandão Lopes Martins  5
Affiliations

Back pain in elementary schoolchildren is related to screen habits

Erivelton Fernandes França et al. AIMS Public Health. .

Abstract

Purpose: Verify the influences of physical activity level, nutritional status and screen habits on the prevalence of back pain in Brazilian students.

Methods: The sample consisted of 577 schoolchildren (female = 274; male = 303) aged between 10 and 16 years old, regularly enrolled in the 6th grade of elementary school living in the metropolitan area of the Alto Tietê of the state of São Paulo, Brazil. The prevalence, intensity and frequency of pain was verified with the Back Pain Assessment Instrument. The usual practice of physical activity was verified with the Physical Activity Questionnaire for Older Children/Adolescent. Nutritional status was analyzed using Body Mass Index. Screen habits were obtained through a previously structured questionnaire.

Results: The Chi-square test indicated that pain complaint and its prevalence in the cervical region are significantly higher in females (p < 0.05). The multiple logistic regression test revealed that watching television influences the prevalence of cervical pain and that the use of more than one screen increases the occurrence of low back pain in male students (p < 0.05).

Conclusion: Female students were the most affected by back pain complain, especially in the cervical region. However, factors associated with the prevalence of back pain were found only in males.

Keywords: back pain; child obesity; childhood physical activity; screen habits.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of interest: All authors declare no conflicts of interest in this paper.

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