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Table 4 Data from the epidemiologic literature on back pain at least once in children

From: Back pain in children surveyed with weekly text messages - a 2.5 year prospective school cohort study

 

Mikkelsson et al.[[17]]

Hakala et al.[[18]]

Petersen et al.[[19]]

Stanford et al.[[20]]

Dunn et al.[[16]]

Kjær et al.[[7]]

Country

Finland

Finland

Sweden

Canada

USA

Denmark

Design

Cross sectional + follow up

Cross sect. + follow up

Cross sectional

Longitudinal (8 yrs)

Longitudinal (3 m/3 yrs)

Cross sectional + follow up

Study sample

Pupils from 19 primary schools

Population register. All Finns born on adjacent dates in summer

Randomized cluster sample of pupils

Non-institutionalized civilian population

Girls/boys initially 11 yrs randomly selected in GH database

Primary/secondary school. 38 state schools in one municipality

Response rate

83%

77%

97%

?

49%

62%, 57%, 58%

Valid sample size

1756

62677

1121

2488

1333

479, 439, 443

Data collection

Questionnaire

Questionnaire

Questionnaire

Computer ass. Interview + Questionnaire

Telephone survey + Questionnaire

Interview + Questionnaire

Age group

9, 12 (mean: 9.8, 11.8)

12,14,16,18 (mean: 12.6, 14.6, 16.6, 18.6)

6-13

10-18

11-14

9,13,15 (mean: 9.7, 13.1, 15.7)

Definition of back pain

Pain/ache in neck, upper back (UB), low back (LBP)

Back or neck pain the past half a year

Backache last 6 months

Backache past 6 months

Back pain a whole day or more in the past 3 months

Any spinal pain:

Recall period

3 months

6 months

6 months

6 months

3 months

1 month

Prevalence estimates never/seldom

BP (UB, LBP)

BP + NP (12y)

BP (6-13y)

BP (12-13y)

BP (11-14y) 78%

BP (9y, 13y, 15y) 67%

Overall: monthly

     

33%, 28%, 48%

Frequency

Weekly

Weekly

≥ 1 Weekly:

Weekly

Low/high

 

Once

    

10% (low prob.)

 

Several/frequently/continually

12.7% (Only mentioned in the discussion section)

Girls: 6-16% Boys: 4-10%

Grade 0: 2% Grade 1: 3% Grade 2: 3% Grade 3: 6% Grade 4: 7.5% Grade 5: 14% Grade 6: 17%

17.6%

1,3% (high prob.)

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