Hafiza Sabeen Ayesha, Syed Shakil-ur Rehman.
Prevalence and Associated Risk Factors of Spinal Pain among School Going Young Children.
J Riphah Coll Rehab Sci Jan ;5(1):37-41.

Background: Back pain in school going young children is common and challenging for society. The factors contributed are trauma, lack of physical activity, imbalance diet, use of heavy back packs and sedentary life style, with Prolong use of desktops/laptops/mobiles cause extra stress on back muscles. Objective: To investigate the prevalence and associated risk factors of back pain among school going young children. Methodology: This cross-sectional survey was conducted in 15 schools of rural as well as urban Punjab and Islamabad, from 1st May to 31st December 2015.The school going young children of both gender and age ranged from 12 to 16 years were included and the students with any history of spinal fracture, congenital deformity and postural malformation were excluded. A self-structured questionnaire was developed and pretested on 15 participants for validity and reliability. The questionnaire was circulated among 700 school children and 565 positively responded. The non-probability convenient sampling technique was used for data collection. The data was analyzed by SPSS and percentages were calculated to estimate the prevalence and associated factors of back pain among school going young children. Results: The prevalence of back pain was 83%, causes 31% absentees from school, and 41% restrictions in physical activity. The commonly used remedies were rest (42 %), medication (19%), and 14% massage, while aggravated by carrying school bag (32%) and relieved by taking rest (42%). The highest association of back pain was found with female gender and weight of school bag, and no association with body weight and BMI. The back pain was highest in age group between 14 and 15 years and commonly involved site was thoracic spine. Conclusions: It is concluded that there is highest prevalence of back pain in school going young children and mostly affects the thoracic spine and age group 14 to 15 years. It causes absentees from school and restrictions in physical activities. The weight of school bag and female gender were the highest associated risk factors. Keywords: Mobilization, Manual Therapy, Shoulder Pain

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