Children with hypermobile shoulders, knees, ankles at risk for musculoskeletal pain

Children were twice as likely to develop musculoskeletal pain in certain joints when those joints were hypermobile, according to study results in Arthritis Care & Research.

“Our study provides the first prospective evidence that adolescents who display joint hypermobility are at increased risk of developing musculoskeletal pain as they get older, particularly in the shoulder, knee, ankle or feet,” Jonathan H. Tobias, MD, PhD, of the University of Rheumatology in Bristol, United Kingdom, stated in a press release.

Tobias and colleagues evaluated 1,267 boys and 1,634 girls from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children which involved diagnosing joint hypermobility at age 14 with a Beighton Hypermobility Score of 6 points. When the participants turned age 18, they completed a musculoskeletal pain questionnaire.

The results showed 4.6% of children had hypermobile joints by age 14 and 45% of them reported joint pain that lasted one day or more at the age of 18 years. Among the participants, 16.1% had low back pain, 8.9% had upper back pain, 8.9% had neck pain, 9.5% had shoulder pain, 8.8% had knee pain and 6.8% had foot and ankle pain.

For the spine, hands, elbows and hips, investigators found no correlation between hypermobility and musculoskeletal pain.

“Further investigation of increased joint pain in teens is warranted to determine if the long-term effects of joint hypermobility puts them at risk for developing osteoarthritis later in life,” Tobias stated in the release.

Reference:

Tobias JH. Arthritis Rheum. 2013;doi:10.1002/art.37836.

Disclosure: The study was funded by Arthritis Research UK.