Prevalence of self-reported back pain in school children: a study of sociodemographic differences.

Abstract

The study considers the prevalence of back pain experienced in a nationwide random sample of 2173 Icelandic school children aged 11-12 and 15-16. The study found a 20.6% prevalence of "at least weekly" back pain. The prevalence of back pain was significantly more frequent among the older children. No gender or class difference was found in the overall sample. Older children from rural areas have significantly more back pain than those living in the city. The need for a thorough epidemiological investigation of the association of back pain in children is emphasized. The high prevalence of frequent back pain found in this study should be of great concern to health care professionals. An important step in future research is to broadly document the prevalences of various combinations of pains and various bio-psycho-social factors that are related to pain experiences and pain frequency in this age group.