Associations Between Children's Physical Activity, Pain and Injuries.

João Paulo De Aguiar Greca,Jennifer Ryan,Thomas Korff

doi:10.1177/00315125211028455

João Paulo De Aguiar Greca, Jennifer Ryan + Show 1 more

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https://doi.org/10.1177/00315125211028455

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Abstract

Our aim in this study was to investigate the relationships between physical activity (PA), pain, and injury among children. Secondarily, we examined whether these relationships differed between children with normal versus excessive weight or obesity. This was a cross-sectional study of 102 children (57 girls) aged 8–12 years old. We assessed the prevalence of moderate and vigorous PA using accelerometry over a seven-day period. We examined the associations between moderate PA, vigorous PA, pain presence, and injury presence using generalized estimating equations with a logit link and binomial distribution. We adjusted the obtained models for potential confounders and explored the moderating effect of weight status. We found no association between moderate PA and pain, but time spent in vigorous PA was associated with pain. Neither moderate or vigorous PA were associated with injury, and there was no moderating effect of weight status in these relationships. In summary, we found that objectively measured vigorous PA is associated with pain among 8–12 year old children. While these results should be replicated in longitudinal studies, they suggest that an association between vigorous PA and pain should be considered when developing PA interventions for children.

Highlights

Physical activity (PA) is a broad concept, defined as any bodily movement generated by skeletal muscle that results in energy expenditure (Caspersen et al, 1985)
No child was excluded from the study based on their response to the Physical Activity Readiness Questionnaire (PAR-Q), but 12 students were excluded from the final analyses for at least three days of missing PA data, leaving 102 children in the final analyses
There was a difference in moderate intensity PA (MPA) (b: 3.1, 95% CI À0.3 to 6.4, p 1⁄4 .071) between children with normal weight and those with OW/ OB, but there was no difference in vigorous intensity PA (VPA) (b: 0.5, 95% CI À5.3 to 6.3, p 1⁄4 .859) between these weight-based groups

Summary

Introduction

Physical activity (PA) is a broad concept, defined as any bodily movement generated by skeletal muscle that results in energy expenditure (Caspersen et al, 1985). According to the UK Chief Medical Officers’ Physical Activity Guidelines (Davies et al, 2019), children should engage in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) for an average of at least 60 minutes daily across the week. Weight-bearing PA, such as habitual walking and running, may result in pain and injury because of increased joint loading (Greca et al, 2019). Only a few studies have examined any association between PA and pain and injuries among children. Understanding the association between PA, pain and injuries in children may support the need to develop interventions to increase PA in this population (Wilkie et al, 2016)

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