Low Back pain in Young Athletes: Epidemilogic Study of Risk Factors

Ahn, Myun Whan; Kim, Dae Mang; Ihn, Joo Chul

Abstract

Epidemilologic information about various syndromes in low back pain has been regarded by Vert Mooney as one of the important sources for establishing prognosis and providing a rationale for therapy. Several risk factors about low back pain and injuries were analyzed through a questionnaire filled out by 172 athletes of various kind of sports including students and professional players. The following results were obtained. 1. Types of sports were associated with the incidence of low back injuries and gymnastics were included in high risk groups (p<0.01). 2. Career is also associated with the incidence of low back injuries (p<0.05). 3. Pain pattern, such as anterior element pain or posterior element pain is also associated with the particular type of sport(p<0.001). 4. Over-use has been suspected as a main cause of sports injury in 37.8% of athletes. Neglect of warming-up, psychologic attitudes and chronic accumulation of micro-trauma have been also suspected (p<0.001). 5. Management of pain was expected to be received from physiotherapists by 34.2%, from coaches or fellow sportsmen by 24.6%, from an acupuncturist by 17.5%, from doctors by 9.7%, and from trainers by 14% of athletes. However 66.7% of the professional players wanted to receive management of pain from trainers (p<0.001).