Teenagers who use cell phones for more than three hours a day suffer more from back pain

With the popularization of devices such as cell phones and tablets and the multiplication of video channels, games and educational applications, children and adolescents have been spending more and more time in front of screens. And, at these times, it is common for them to adopt inappropriate postures, which can cause, among other problems, pain in the spine.

A new study has identified several risk factors for spine health, such as using screens for more than three hours a day, the short distance between electronic equipment and the eyes, use in the prone position (on your stomach ) and also in the sitting position.

The focus of the study was so-called thoracic back pain, or TSP. A total of 1,628 students of both sexes between 14 and 18 years of age, enrolled in the first and second year of high school, daytime, in the urban area of ​​the municipality of Bauru (SP), who answered a questionnaire between March and June were evaluated. de 2017. Of these, 1,393 were reassessed in 2018.

The survey found that of all participants, the one-year prevalence was 38.4%, meaning that teens reported TSP in both 2017 and 2018. The one-year incidence was 10.1%; that is, they did not report TSP in 2017, but were referred as new cases of TSP in 2018. Back pain occurs more in girls than in boys.

The results of the study funded by the State of São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) were published in healthcare scientific journal.

Risk factors

Middle back pain (TSP) is common in different age groups in the world population. It is estimated to affect 15% to 35% of adults and 13% to 35% of children and adolescents. The Covid-19 pandemic and the consequent explosion in the use of electronics have exacerbated the incidence of the problem.

Physical, physiological, psychological and behavioral risk factors or a combination of these are associated with TSP, according to several investigations. There is also strong evidence for the effects of physical activity, sedentary behavior and mental health on spinal health. All these factors were considered critical by the World Health Organization (WHO) in its most recent global review of evidence and guidelines.

“This work can be used to implement health education programs at different school levels, aiming to train students, teachers, employees and parents”, says Alberto de Vitta, doctor in education from the State University of Campinas (Unicamp), with a postdoctoral degree in public health from the Paulista State University (Unesp) of Botucatu and one of the authors of the article.

“This meets some objectives of the National Curriculum Parameters [PCN]according to which the school must assume responsibility for health education, identifying risk factors for personal and collective health in the environment in which they live, intervening individually or collectively on factors that are unfavorable to health and promoting the adoption of habits of self-care with respect to the possibilities and limits of the body”, adds Vitta, who currently teaches and researches at the Department of Physiotherapy at Faculdade Eduvale de Avaré (SP) and at the graduate program in Education, Knowledge and Society at the University of Vale do Sapucaí .

Information about risk factors for TSP in high school students is relevant because children and adolescents with back pain are more inactive, have lower academic performance and have more psychosocial problems, points out the article.

Furthermore, few studies have been performed on TSP compared with low back and neck pain. A systematic review of TSP identified only two prospective studies on prognostic factors.

In addition to Vitta, the article is signed by Matias Noll, Instituto Federal Goiano and the Faculty of Physical Education and Dance at the Federal University of Goiás, Manuel Monfort-Pañego and Vicente Miñana-Signes, from the University of Valencia (Spain), and Nicoly Machado Maciel, from the University of São Paulo.