Author(s)

Amr Chaabeni, Amine Kalai, Islem Megdiche, Houda Migaou, Anis Jellad^*, Zohra Ben Salah Frih

Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Faculty of Medicine, University of Monastir, Monastir, Tunisia.

Low back pain (LBP) in adolescent athletes may lead to a significant lost playing time and thus reduce their performance and compromise their career. The aim of our study was to determine the one-year prevalence of LBP and its associated factors in adolescent athletes. Methods: A cross-sectional study including adolescent athletes from a Tunisian athletics club. LBP prevalence and circumstances were noticed. Training characteristics and flexibility of the lumbar spine and lower extremities were studied. Results: We included 141 young athletes with a mean age of 16.42 ± 1.76 years. The sex ratio was 1.23. Athletes practiced 3 types of sports: running (n = 67), throwing (n = 42) and jumping (n = 32). The average length of sport practice was 4 ± 2 years. The one-year prevalence of LBP was 60.2%. Athletes with LBP history were older (p = 0.004) and had a higher BMI (p = 0.003) and poorer spinal flexibility (p = 0.008) than athletes with no LBP. The practice duration was not significantly different between the two groups. Athletes practicing throwing sports had higher prevalence of LBP (73.8%) than those practicing running (56.7%) and jumping (50%) without statistical significance (p = 0.083). The main circumstance of LBP onset was “an intense training session”. Quadriceps tightness was an associated factor with LBP only for adolescents practicing jumping (p = 0.026). In conclusion, prevalence of LBP in adolescent athletes remains high. Older age, high BMI, high practicing years and poor spine flexibility seem to be associated with the onset of LBP. Further high-quality studies assessing more epidemiological, anatomical and sports characteristics are still needed.

Back Pain, Athletes, Adolescents, Prevalence, Sports Medicine

Chaabeni, A., Kalai, A., Megdiche, I., Migaou, H., Jellad, A. and Frih, Z.B.S. (2023) Prevalence and Associated Factors of Low Back Pain among Adolescent Athletes from an Athletics Club: A Cross-Sectional Study. Open Access Library Journal, 10, 1-7. doi: 10.4236/oalib.1109722.