title: Incidence of back pain in adolescent athletes: a prospective study.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Recently, the incidence rate of back pain (BP) in adolescents has been reported at 21%. However, the development of BP in adolescent athletes is unclear. Hence, the purpose of this study was to examine the incidence of BP in young elite athletes in relation to gender and type of sport practiced.
  
  
  METHODS
  Subjective BP was assessed in 321 elite adolescent athletes (m/f 57%/43%; 13.2 ± 1.4 years; 163.4 ± 11.4 cm; 52.6 ± 12.6 kg; 5.0 ± 2.6 training yrs; 7.6 ± 5.3 training h/week). Initially, all athletes were free of pain. The main outcome criterion was the incidence of back pain [%] analyzed in terms of pain development from the first measurement day (M1) to the second measurement day (M2) after 2.0 ± 1.0 year. Participants were classified into athletes who developed back pain (BPD) and athletes who did not develop back pain (nBPD). BP (acute or within the last 7 days) was assessed with a 5-step face scale (face 1-2 = no pain; face 3-5 = pain). BPD included all athletes who reported faces 1 and 2 at M1 and faces 3 to 5 at M2. nBPD were all athletes who reported face 1 or 2 at both M1 and M2. Data was analyzed descriptively. Additionally, a Chi2test was used to analyze gender- and sport-specific differences (p= 0.05).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Thirty-two athletes were categorized as BPD (10%). The gender difference was 5% (m/f: 12%/7%) but did not show statistical significance (p= 0.15). The incidence of BP ranged between 6 and 15% for the different sport categories. Game sports (15%) showed the highest, and explosive strength sports (6%) the lowest incidence. Anthropometrics or training characteristics did not significantly influence BPD (p= 0.14 gender top= 0.90 sports; r2= 0.0825).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  BP incidence was lower in adolescent athletes compared to young non-athletes and even to the general adult population. Consequently, it can be concluded that high-performance sports do not lead to an additional increase in back pain incidence during early adolescence. Nevertheless, back pain prevention programs should be implemented into daily training routines for sport categories identified as showing high incidence rates.
authors.affiliation: University Outpatient Clinic, Sports Medicine & Sports Orthopaedics, University of Potsdam, Am Neuen Palais 10 - House 12, D-14469 Potsdam, Germany.
authors.forename: Steffen
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Mueller
authors.affiliation: University Outpatient Clinic, Sports Medicine & Sports Orthopaedics, University of Potsdam, Am Neuen Palais 10 - House 12, D-14469 Potsdam, Germany.
authors.forename: Juliane
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Mueller
authors.affiliation: University Outpatient Clinic, Sports Medicine & Sports Orthopaedics, University of Potsdam, Am Neuen Palais 10 - House 12, D-14469 Potsdam, Germany.
authors.forename: Josefine
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Stoll
authors.affiliation: Division of Training and Movement Sciences, University of Potsdam, Potsdam, Germany.
authors.forename: Olaf
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Prieske
authors.affiliation: University Outpatient Clinic, Sports Medicine & Sports Orthopaedics, University of Potsdam, Am Neuen Palais 10 - House 12, D-14469 Potsdam, Germany.
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Cassel
authors.affiliation: University Outpatient Clinic, Sports Medicine & Sports Orthopaedics, University of Potsdam, Am Neuen Palais 10 - House 12, D-14469 Potsdam, Germany.
authors.forename: Frank
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Mayer
keywords: Injury; Pain occurrence; Training volume; Young athletes