Because of the popularity of smartphones and tablets, as well as the growth of television channels, computer games, and educational applications, children and teenagers spend more time gazing at screens, sometimes with poor posture, which can lead to back pain and other issues.
Researchers from Brazil conducted a study that was supported by FAPESP and reported in an article published in the scientific journal Healthcare. The study identified several risk factors for spinal health, including looking at screens for longer than three hours per day, the proximity of the eyes to the screen, and sitting or lying on one’s stomach. The study focused on thoracic spine pain (TSP).
The thoracic spine is located at the back of the chest (the thorax), mostly between the shoulder blades, extending from the bottom of the neck to the start of the lumbar spine. The data examined came from surveys of first- and second-year high school students in Bauru, a medium-sized city in the state of Sao Paulo, aged 14 to 18, who were both male and female.
A baseline questionnaire was completed in March-June 2017 by 1,628 participants, of whom 1,393 completed a follow-up questionnaire in 2018. The analysis showed a one-year prevalence of 38.4 per cent (the proportion reporting TSP in both the baseline and follow-up surveys) and a one-year incidence of 10.1 per cent (new TSP reported only in the follow-up survey). More girls than boys reported TSP.
Risk factors
TSP is common in different age groups of the general population worldwide, with prevalence ranging from 15 per cent to -35 per cent in adults and 13 per cent -35 per cent in children and adolescents.
Explosive growth in the use of electronic devices during the COVID-19 pandemic clearly worsened the problem.
According to several investigations, the risk factors associated with TSP are physical, physiological, psychological and behavioural. There is also strong evidence of the effects of physical activity, sedentary habits and mental disorders on spinal health.
The World Health Organization (WHO) considers all these factors critical in its latest global review of evidence and guidelines.
According to Alberto de Vitta, the article’s first author, “The study can be used to inform health education programs for school students, teachers, staff and parents”. Alberto de Vitta has a PhD in education from the State University of Campinas (UNICAMP) and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in public health at Sao Paulo State University (UNESP) in Botucatu.
“This is in line with some of the objectives of the National Curriculum Parameters [PCN, Brazilian government guidelines for secondary schools], according to which schools are responsible for health education, including identification of risks to individual and collective health and interventions to combat them, as well as promotion of self-care habits with regard to the body’s possibilities and limits,” said Alberto de Vitta, who is currently teaching and researching at Eduvale College as a faculty member in its Department of Physical Therapy in Avare, Sao Paulo state, and the University of Sapucai Valley’s Graduate Program in Education, Knowledge and Society in Pouso Alegre, Minas Gerais state.
According to the article, information on risk factors for TSP in high school students is important because children and adolescents with back pain are more inactive, achieve less academically and have more psychosocial problems. In addition, fewer studies have been conducted on TSP than on lower back and neck pain. A systematic review of the literature on TSP found only two prospective studies regarding prognostic factors.
(with inputs from ANI)
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