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Association between home posture habits and low back pain in high school adolescents

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Abstract

Purpose

To investigate the prevalence of low back pain (LBP) and the association with home posture habits while watching TV and using the computer in adolescents.

Methods

This is a cross-sectional study with high school adolescents in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Students answered questions regarding sociodemographic variables, lifestyle, posture (illustration), time watching TV, time using computer, time playing video game and the presence and impact of LBP. Multivariate logistic regression was used to investigate the association between home posture habits and LBP.

Results

The prevalence of LBP was 46.8 % (18.2 % chronic low back pain [CLBP] and 28.6 % acute low back pain [ALBP]). As LBP consequence, 23 % (n = 253) of the students took medication, 9.1 % (n = 100) missed classes and 8.2 % (n = 90) sought a physician. Slump postures while watching TV and using the desktop computer were associated with CLBP (OR 3.22, 95 % CI 1.38–7.5 and OR 1.7, 95 % CI 1.06–2.73, respectively). Participants who watched TV seated in bed yielded an OR of 2.14 (95 % CI 1.06–4.32) for ALBP and who used the notebook lying belly down in bed yielded an odds ratio (OR) of 2.26 (95 % CI 1.02–5.01) for ALBP. Among confounding factors, female sex was associated with CLBP and ALBP, work (no) was a protective factor associated with ALBP.

Conclusion

Our findings support the high prevalence and the substantial impact of LBP in late adolescence and add the association with inappropriate home postural habits.

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Acknowledgments

The authors thank Prof. Michael Eduardo Reichenheim Ph.D for the idea of the posture Illustrations, Prof. Washington Junger for helping with R-project for Statistical Computing, Leonardo Batista de Leão for drawing the figures of postures, Luiz Fernando Martins Ribeiro and Marcela Teixeira, teachers of the State High School for the help in data collection, Gisela Meziat for the English revision, Vivian Correa, Maria de Fátima Andrade, Roberta Mendonça and Leonardo Paolino for helping with the field research and Carlos Vicente Rodrigues for helping with data tabulation. There was no research funding. The first author received a monthly doctoral scholarship of CAPES (Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Level—or Education—Personnel). ESFC was partially supported by the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq), process no 306575/2011-6. This study was presented at CIRNE 2013 (International Congress on Sports and Neuromusculoskeletal Rehabilitation).

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Correspondence to Ney Meziat Filho.

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Meziat Filho, N., Coutinho, E.S. & Azevedo e Silva, G. Association between home posture habits and low back pain in high school adolescents. Eur Spine J 24, 425–433 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00586-014-3571-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00586-014-3571-9

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