Prävalenz und assoziierte Faktoren des Rückenschmerzes bei Jugendlichen - Ergebnisse einer Querschnittsuntersuchung von 2368 Adoleszenten

Back Pain is a common problem for adolescents and adults. it has high social but also economic importance in medicine and public health. Material and methods: A total of 2368 adolescents (1137 male, 1231 female; age 14.5 +/- 0.65, 13-18 years) who had undergone obligatory public health examination were included into the study. In the beginning the adolescents had to answer a questionnaire. Here were asked frequency and localisation of muscolu-skeletal and back pain but also social status and consumption of tobacco and alcoholic beverages. The clinical examination was performed by 4 well experienced school-doctors. At the beginning the doctors were instructed by an orthopaedic surgeon and the criteria for clinical signs of back pathologies were standardized. Results: The overall prevalence of LBP was 45.5%. From these 38.2% adolescents had occasional back pain, 4% during physical activity, and 3.3% reported permanent pain. The prevalence of back pathologies was 28.1%. The prevalence of back pain without concomitant back pathologies was 29%. In 11.7% of the adolescents pathologies of the back were detected without any symptoms. The combination of back pain and back pathology was observed in 16.5%. Metaanalysis revealed the following significant risk factors (p < 0.05) for developing LBP: Female gender (OR = 1.6), visit of a middle school (OR=1.5) or visit of a high school (OR = 1.7), smoking (OR = 1.5), scoliosis (OR = 1.8), round back (OR=1.6), and inclined pelvic tilting pelvis (OR=1.4). Conclusions: In our adolescent population back pain is a common problem with an overall life time prevalence of 45,5%. Objective pathological changes as detected by clinical examination are only found in 28.1% of these children. Other factors such as female gender, alcohol or smoking seem to be related to a higher prevalence of LBP as well. Therefore, early preventive programs for this age group may reduce the prevalence of LBP.