Am J Phys Med Rehabil. 2022 Dec 14. doi: 10.1097/PHM.0000000000002168. Online ahead of print.
ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVES: Neck pain (NP) is extremely common and represents a substantial economic burden to our society. We aimed to investigate risk factors for non-disabling and disabling neck pain in a large cohort of Italian adolescents with a cross-sectional study.
DESIGN: Six thousand, two hundred eighty-one students (14-19 years old) answered an online questionnaire, investigating: anthropometric data, lifestyle-related items, NP frequency and intensity, need for medical examination and several risk factors. Students who had to give up social activities due to neck complaints constituted the disabling NP group (DIS-NP).
RESULTS: Our findings revealed that sex, age, sports practice, hours of sleep and family history were risk factors (p < 0.001) for NP in our cohort. Moreover, DIS-NP suffered from NP more frequently (p < 0.001) and with higher levels of pain (p < 0.001) compared to the non-disabling group. The number of hours of sleep was the only risk factor that showed a trend to differ comparing the DIS-NP group with the non-disabling NP one (p = 0.057).
CONCLUSION: Different risk factors for NP were detected in a very large cohort of adolescents.This study may pave the way for future prospective studies and for the development of preventive strategies for NP in adolescents.
PMID:36729580 | DOI:10.1097/PHM.0000000000002168
