School Health: Prevalence of back pain and associated factors in the Sertão de Pernambuco

Abstract

Objective: To verify the prevalence of back pain in schoolchildren enrolled in Elementary School I in the city of Petrolina-PE, to investigate the relationship between back pain and backpack weight and weekly physical exercise.

Materials and method: Cross-sectional study carried out with 129 schoolchildren (10-12 years old) of both sexes. Anthropometric data were evaluated, the BackPEI questionnaire was applied to demographic information, lifestyle and the prevalence of back pain.

Results: Statistical differences were observed for the practice of physical exercises (p <0.001) and their weekly frequency (p <0.001). 25.6% of boys and 31.8% of girls indicated feeling or having felt back pain in the past three months. Girls indicated 59.6% prevalence of back pain, and boys 40.3%. The logistic regression analysis (OR -0.361; p = 0.001) indicated the weekly frequency of physical exercise as a variable capable of predicting back pain, in 64%.

Conclusion: Back pain was more prevalent in women, with low intensity for both sexes. The weight of the backpack was not a predictive factor for pain, whereas the weekly frequency of exercise proved to be a protective factor against back pain.