Abstract
On surveys, about every fifth child in the school age reports back pain. There is a dearth of literature on the association between functional stability and back pain in children. To examine the association between functional stability, measured with the Matthiasstest, and "back pain during the last week". We used data from a cross-sectional survey on third, fourth and fifth grade school-years (128 children aged between 8 and 12 years) in seven different classes in two different rural regions of Switzerland, to evaluate in an explorative manner the association between the score of the Matthiass-test and low back pain and upper back pain in the last week with two multivariable logistic regressions. The Matthiass-test score, controlled for age, sex and language region of the school, was significantly associated with low back pain in the last week (adjusted odds ratio 1.77 with an 95% confidence interval from 1.08 to 2.91) and non significantly with the upper back pain in the last week (adjusted odds ratio 1.67 with an 95% confidence interval from 0.98 to 2.81). The Matthiass-test score is associated with low back pain. Because of the exploratory character of this study, these results should be regarded with caution. Whether a high score on the Matthiass-test could be a risk factor for back pain should be evaluated in prospective studies.
Highlights
IntroductionAbout every fifth child reports back pain [1]. Factors like poor life style habits, activity behaviours, psychological factors, misconceptions about back pain, and biological and social factors can influence back pain [1,2,3,4,5].Conflicting evidence exists about muscular strength as a risk factor for back pain [4]
On surveys, about every fifth child reports back pain [1]
The Matthiass-test score is associated with low back pain
Summary
About every fifth child reports back pain [1]. Factors like poor life style habits, activity behaviours, psychological factors, misconceptions about back pain, and biological and social factors can influence back pain [1,2,3,4,5].Conflicting evidence exists about muscular strength as a risk factor for back pain [4]. About every fifth child reports back pain [1]. Clinical stability or functional stability, ie the ability of the spine to maintain its pattern of displacement under physiologic loads, integrating muscular functioning, neural control and intrinsic stability from spinal column [6], is probably more important than pure strength. A widely used test to assess the capability of children to control and maintain a position of the body is the Matthiass-test (MT), in which the child has to stand upright for at least 30 seconds with straight arms holding in 90° shoulder flexion. The association between the results of this test and back pain in children was reported at least once: Salminen found no association between the failure in the test and low back pain [7]. Whether a different judging of this test would provide different results: we used a score built with the sum of the gives (compensatory movements) out of four different defined compensatory movements during the MT
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