REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA — In this digital era, smartphone or smart phones have become new friends for teenagers. They can spend hours staring at smartphone screens or gadgets, sometimes with bad posture.
A study revealed that bad posture habits can have an impact on spinal health. The study by researchers from Brazil identified several risk factors for spinal health, such as staring at screens for more than three hours a day, close eyes to screens, and sitting or lying on your stomach.
This study focuses on mid-back pain (thoracic spine pain /TSP). Middle back pain located at the back of the chest (thorax), mostly between the shoulder blades, extending from the bottom of the neck to the start of the lumbar spine. The data analyzed came from a survey of male and female students aged 14 to 18 in the first and second years of secondary school in Bauru, a city in the state of Sao Paulo.
The initial questionnaire was completed in March-June 2017 by 1,628 participants, of which 1,393 completed the follow-up questionnaire in 2018. The analysis showed a one-year prevalence of 38.4 percent (the proportion reporting TSP in both the initial and follow-up surveys) and a one-year incidence of 10.1 percent (TSP was reported only in follow-up surveys). More girls than boys report TSP.
TSP is common in various age groups of the general population worldwide, with a prevalence ranging from 15-35 percent in adults and 13-35 percent in children and adolescents. The explosive growth in the use of electronic devices during the Covid-19 pandemic has clearly exacerbated the problem.
The risk factors associated with TSP are physical, physiological, psychological and behavioral. There is also strong evidence of the effects of physical activity, sedentary habits, and mental disorders on spinal health. All of these factors were deemed important by the World Health Organization (WHO) in its most recent global review of evidence and guidelines
“This study can be used to inform health education programs for school students, teachers, staff and parents,” said Alberto de Vitta, lead author of the study. Hindustan Times Monday (10/4/2023).
He said this was in line with several goals of the Brazilian curriculum which hold schools responsible for health education, including the identification of risks to individual and collective health and interventions to combat those risks. “As well as promoting self-care habits with respect to the possibilities and limits of the body,” says Vitta, who currently teaches and researches at Eduvale College.
Information about the risk factors for TSP in high school students is considered important. This is because children and adolescents with back pain are more inactive, perform less academically, and have more psychosocial problems. Additionally, not as much research has been done on TSP as compared to low back and neck pain. A systematic review of the literature on TSP found only two prospective studies regarding prognostic factors.
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