Dor nas costas e percepção da qualidade de vida relacionada à saúde em adolescentes

Abstract

Musculoskeletal pain is an important public health problem in modern society, not only in adults, but also in children and adolescents, neck and low back pain are important causes of disability in this population. The high prevalence of back pain in this age group is a point of concern due to the important relationship between back pain in adolescence and adulthood. Chronic diseases have an impact on quality of life, and although studies on adults have grown worldwide, the evaluation of subjective well-being in children and adolescents is still scarce. Little is known about the general health status of children and adolescents with back pain, and most of the studies conducted so far have assed the prevalence and risk factors associated with back pain. The present study aims to evaluate the association between low back pain and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) among adolescents. This is a cross-sectional study with a sample of 350 students from the 5th to 9th grade of a public school in Niterói, Rio de Janeiro. Anthropometric measurements were performed and sociodemographic, lifestyle, frequency and severity information of neck, thoracic and low back pain in the previous month, besides HRQoL (evaluated using the KIDSCREEN-27 instrument) were self-reported. Multiple linear regression analyzes were performed to investigate the association between low back pain and HRQoL, stratified by sex. The mean age of schoolchildren was 12.7 (+1.6) years. The frequency of neck, thoracic and low back pain was 34.3%, 27.1% and 13.1%, respectively. The presence of two or three painful sites in the spine was reported by 21.7% of adolescents. The frequency and severity of neck pain were inversely associated with global HRQoL index in both sexes. There is a strong inverse association between the number of painful sites in the spine with the global HRQoL index and their domains. Adolescents without pain had higher HRQoL scores, reinforcing the idea that this population needs more attention, since there is an important relationship between quality of life in adolescence and in adult life.