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Weight could be factor for low back pain in adolescents
Finnish study reveals correlation between low birth weight, teen obesity and low back pain.
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Low back pain in adolescents could be linked to low birth weight in male children and obesity by age 16 in all children, according to Finnish researchers.
Jaro Karppinen, MD, PhD, of the department of physical medicine and rehabilitation, University of Oulu in Finland, studied a cohort from the Oulu Back Study, which consisted of 2969 adolescents who had been followed from birth to 18 years old. The data came from the larger Northern Finland 1985-1986 birth cohort, consisting of data on nearly 10,000 youths.
“The results of our prospective cohort study shows that there is an association of obesity at 16 and low back pain in adolescents, especially in persistent cases,” said Karppinen, who presented data at the International Society for the Study of the Lumbar Spine 32nd Annual Meeting. “There is a significant association between low birth weight and incidental low back pain in males, indicating that small-boned boys are at risk. We should provide them with some support.”
Incidental or persistent pain
In all, Karppinen and colleagues performed the prospective cohort evaluation on data gleaned from a questionnaire mailed to the children at 16 and 18 years of age. Overall there were 2019 respondents at the 18-year mark, of which 959 responded that they had experienced low back pain either currently or at age 16, and 566 responded that they did not have back pain at either age. The researchers performed a logistic regression analysis on all data with adjustments made for smoking, socioeconomic status and gender for the statistical analysis.
They noted incidental back pain for respondents who said they had back pain at 18 but not at 16. Persistent cases included those who reported low back pain at both the 16-year and 18-year-old point.
Karppinen said 420 of the 18-year-olds reported having incidental back pain and 539 had persistent pain.
Regressing the data back to birth, Karppinen reported correlations between gender, weight and adolescent back pain.
“From the lowest percentile of birth weight, there is an increased risk of incidental pain in boys but not in girls,” he said. “Overall, the persistent cases showed no differences indicated by birth weight.”
Adolescent obesity also correlated with back pain. “The highest body mass index (BMI) at age 16 with increased incidental back pain was in girls, but not in boys,” he said. “But in the cases of persistent pain, those who had the highest BMI – those who were most obese — had an increased risk of persistent pain regardless of gender.”
For more information:
- Mikkonen P, Ziting P, Taimela S, et al. Risk factors of low back pain in adolescents: Birth characteristics and body mass index. A prospective cohort study from birth to 18 years of age. #52. Presented at the International Society for the Study of the Lumbar Spine 32nd Annual Meeting. May 10-14, 2005. New York.