Effects of back care education in elementary schoolchildren.
The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of a back care education programme, consisting of six sessions of 1 h each, in fourth- and fifth-grade elementary schoolchildren. Testing consisted of a practical performance and a back care knowledge test. Forty-two subjects and 36 controls performed a pre-test and were tested within 1 wk after the programme. To monitor effects and follow-up effects on a larger sample, 82 different pupils were tested within 1 wk after the programme and 116 other children 3 mo after. Both larger samples were compared with one group of 129 controls. Interrater reliability for the test items of the practical assessment was high; intraclass correlation coefficients varied from 0.785 to 0.980. In the pre/post design study, interaction between time and condition was significant for the sum score of the practical assessment and for the knowledge test (p < 0.001), with higher scores for the intervention group (15% improvement for the knowledge test score, 31.6% for the practical sum score). Significantly higher sum scores for the knowledge test and for all practical assessment items were found in the intervention groups, tested within 1 wk and 3 mo after the programme, in comparison with the control group (p < 0.001).


CONCLUSIONS
The effectiveness of a primary educational prevention programme on back care principles was demonstrated in this study. Effectiveness, long-term outcomes and behavioural changes need further evaluation to optimize back care prevention programmes for elementary schoolchildren.
Cardon
G
G
Department of Movement and Sports Sciences, Ghent University, Belgium. greet.cardon@rug.ac.be
De Clercq
D
D
De Bourdeaudhuij
I
I
D001416:Back Pain / Q000517:prevention & control*; D002648:Child; D006266:Health Education; D006801:Humans