Whether associated with injury, repetitive work, poor posture or simply old age, back pain is among the most common health problems among Canadian adults. Among them, four out of five people will suffer from at least one episode of back pain, particularly between the ages of 30 and 50.
However, recent research shows that back pain often appears much earlier than we thought, sometimes in adolescence or even in childhood.
André Bussières, full professor in the department of chiropractic at the Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières, examined the question with young people aged 6 to 12 in the Mauricie region in a recently published study.
News discussed it with the man who is also a professor at the School of Physical Therapy and Occupational Therapy at McGill University.
Is back pain a common phenomenon in children and young adolescents?
Precise data on a large scale in children are still patchy, but back pain is much more common than we think, sometimes from the start of primary school.
For a long time, research was more interested in why adults had back pain, given the costs associated with health care and absenteeism from work. In children, it was long thought that it was rarer. It was therefore less studied. We now realize that problems can start very early in life and that a child who has back pain is more at risk of developing it later. This problem can have an influence on the trajectory of a young person: school absenteeism, the abandonment of certain sports practices, even of certain career choices.
It is estimated that half of children will have an episode of back pain at some point during their growth. Prevalence increases throughout adolescence and early adulthood, before peaking in midlife.
Where does back pain in young people come from?
In the past, when a child had back pain, we looked above all for a “serious” reason: cancer, infection, congenital disease, scoliosis. etc However, this type of pathology represents a very small percentage of the causes of back pain.
The vast majority of back or neck problems, more than 90%, are musculoskeletal pain whose causes are a little more difficult to identify: pulled muscles, irritated joints, ligament disorders, minor traumas that can result from sports activities.
In young people, growth spurts related to puberty are often thought to cause these pains. Is that the case?
There is a possible link between growth spurts and back pain. But for the moment, the scientific data are not consistent. Some researchers see a link between the growth of the spine and the onset of back pain, others do not. For example, in the cohort we studied, 20% of the children experienced periods of growth during the data collection period, but we did not observe a strong link with the onset of back pain. It’s still a little mysterious, but it’s an avenue that still remains to be explored.
Can we do anything to prevent back pain in our children?
We must first encourage them to have a healthy lifestyle. Child as adult, we must understand the fact that we have a spine that supports us all our life. It must therefore be kept strong and healthy by moving regularly and avoiding prolonged sitting in bad postures or in static positions. We also know that spending too much time in front of a computer, tablet or phone increases the chances of having a sore neck.
Young people should be as active as possible, while avoiding trauma (shocks, falls) which are an important factor in the onset of back pain.
So sport is a double-edged sword in back health?
It is observed that children who play sports at a low or moderate intensity seem better protected against the development of back pain than others. But greater intensity could increase the risk since high-level sport, where activities are intense and frequent, increases the risk of trauma and microtrauma. These increase the likelihood of seeing some osteoarthritis developing in the peripheral joints of the lower and upper limbs, and in the spine. This is concerning because people are beginning to realize that osteoarthritis, formerly known as wear and tear, appears much earlier than believed, sometimes even in early adulthood.
When should a health professional be consulted?
You have to listen to the child. If we see him less active, if he refuses to do certain activities or complains of pain, this is a good indication. And if the pain is repetitive, it’s a sign that it won’t go away on its own. We must then consult to verify the origin of the pain and not the sign of something more serious, and to determine the appropriate treatment for the child. Above all, we want to prevent it from turning into chronic pain, which is much more difficult for therapists to treat. In general, the therapeutic response is faster in children than adults, so treatments are often shorter and more effective.
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