Abstract
BackgroundLong-term musculoskeletal pain and negative stress are health risks with adverse long-term health effects, and these health risks seem to increase among young people. The mechanisms behind this are unclear. There is a need for a better understanding of perceived stress and musculoskeletal pain among adolescents, in order to improve health promotion and treatment approaches in this group.MethodsObjectives were to evaluate the current prevalence of perceived stress and musculoskeletal pain in 15 and 16 year olds, to explore stress-pain associations and the probability that perceived stress (PSQ) was related to the reporting of pain and variations in pain, and to investigate possible differences in stress between different types of musculoskeletal pain in the adolescents. A cross-sectional study was conducted. Elementary schools participated. The outcomes were stress (Perceived stress questionnaire; PSQ) and musculoskeletal pain (pain/no pain, pain sites, pain duration and pain intensity (Visual analogue scale; VAS).ResultsFifty-one point two percent (N = 422) reported pain, of which 70.8 % reported long-term pain. Some more girls (57.9 %) reported pain. 22.0 % of the study population reported moderate to severe stress (PSQ ≥ 0.45), of which 79.6 % were bothered by pain (Pearson Chi-square 38.47, p ≤ .001). All stress and pain variables were significantly associated (p < .01). The strongest association appeared between pain intensity (VAS) and stress (PSQ) (r = 0.40). Perceived stress (PSQ) was associated with the reporting of pain among the adolescents (Odds Ratio [OR] 1.68) and could explain some of the variation in pain intensity (VAS; β = 0.15, p < .001) and number of pain sites (β = 0.14, p < .01), according to the regression analyses. There were no mean differences in stress (PSQ) between different types of musculoskeletal pain.ConclusionsThere was high prevalence of musculoskeletal pain, long-term pain and moderate to severe stress (PSQ ≥ 0.45) in this study sample. Perceived stress (PSQ) was related to the reporting of musculoskeletal pain among the adolescents and could explain some of the variation in pain intensity (VAS) and number of pain sites. There were no differences in stress levels (PSQ) between different types of musculoskeletal pain in the adolescents.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12889-015-2414-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
Highlights
Long-term musculoskeletal pain and negative stress are health risks with adverse long-term health effects, and these health risks seem to increase among young people
There appears to be an association between musculoskeletal pain and psychological factors in young people [15, 20]
The findings demonstrated a high prevalence of musculoskeletal pain (51.2 %) and long-term musculoskeletal pain (36.3 %) in the adolescents
Summary
Long-term musculoskeletal pain and negative stress are health risks with adverse long-term health effects, and these health risks seem to increase among young people. The positive and functional role of stress might be diminished or entirely lost, when the stress response is detached from the stress stimuli, prolonged and sensitized [1, 8, 9]. This corresponds to the nature of pain. There appears to be an association between musculoskeletal pain and psychological factors in young people [15, 20]
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