Abstract

NOLL, Matias et al. Back pain and the postural and behavioral habits of students in the municipal school network of Teutônia, Rio Grande do Sul. Rev. bras. crescimento desenvolv. hum. [online]. 2013, vol.23, n.2, pp.1-7. ISSN 0104-1282.

OBJECTIVES: to investigate the prevalence of back pain during a prior three-month period; to identify postural and behavioral habits; to assess whether a relationship exists between back pain and the postural and behavioral habits of elementary school students in the municipal school network in the city of Teutônia, Rio Grande do Sul (RS). METHODS: this was an epidemiological population study in which 833 5^th to 8^th grade students from schools in the municipal school network in Teutônia participated. The students completed a Back Pain and Body Posture Evaluation Instrument (BackPEI) questionnaire that assessed back pain and postural and behavioral habits. The analysis was performed using descriptive statistics, calculating prevalence ratios (PR) and confidence intervals at the 95% level. The dependent variable was back pain, and the independent variables were postural and behavioral habits. The PR was calculated using a multivariate analysis with robust variance (α = 0.05). RESULTS: the prevalence of back pain in the previous three months was 54.1%. The majority of students reported feeling pain once per month, and 17.4% of the students reported that pain impaired their performance of daily activities. The multivariate analysis showed a correlation between back pain and time spent per day watching television (p = 0.046), sleeping posture (p = 0.048) and sitting Down to write (p = 0.032). CONCLUSIONS: these results demonstrate a high prevalence of back pain in schoolchildren, suggesting an urgent need to develop educational and preventative programs in schools.

Keywords : back pain; posture; adolescent health; epidemiology.

        · abstract in Portuguese     · text in English     · English ( pdf ) | Portuguese ( pdf )