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Comprehensive Back Health Education: Teaching and Learning

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A special issue of International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (ISSN 1660-4601). This special issue belongs to the section "Health Care Sciences & Services".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 May 2023) | Viewed by 25844

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Special Issue Editors

Dr. Manuel Monfort-Pañego

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Guest Editor

Body Languages Didactics Department, Teacher Training Faculty, University of Valencia, Valencia, Spain
Interests: teacher training; teacher professional development; physical education; back health education; knowledge; habits
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Prof. Dr. Vicente Miñana-Signes

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Guest Editor

Body Languages Didactics Department, Teacher Training Faculty, University of Valencia, Valencia, Spain
Interests: educational models; physical education; knowledge; postural habits; back health education; primary school; secondary school
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

During the second half of the 20th century, nonspecific low back pain (LBP) became one of the biggest problems for public health systems in the western world and now it seems to have spread throughout the world.

The monumental impact of musculoskeletal conditions was recognized by the United Nations, the World Health Organization, the World Bank, and numerous governments around the world through support for the Bone and Joint Decade initiative (2000 to 2010.)

The European Union has developed policies to promote action research in this field. Through "COST Action B13," a guide has been developed that gathers and organizes the scientific evidence on this issue. It aims to develop an effective intervention for the prevention of this problem, and to mark the direction of future research lines.

Currently, it is known that the prevalence of back problems at school age is high, and therefore deserves a more exhaustive study. The European guidelines for LBP prevention based on scientific studies and recent review studies conclude that there is insufficient evidence to recommend a generalized educational intervention in school-age children, but state that development of preventive programs and risk factor modification would be a positive move. So, we can say that there is a wide consensus on the need to address back health problems at early ages from an educational context. Comprehensive back health education interventions should focus on improving back health awareness and developing healthy habits through motivating activities.

The comprehensive back health education interventions should focus on improving back health awareness and develop healthy habits through motivating activities.

This Special Issue aims to show an analysis of the current state of educational interventions for the care and improvement of back health. In addition, it seeks to select the most important research studies on interventions under development, to point out the most effective models and methodological strategies in diverse educational contexts, as well as to point out the needs, challenges and future lines of research.

In this Special Issue, we invite you to share your work on back health education in children and adolescents. We would also be very interested in proposals like:

The transfer of scientific knowledge to education: evidence for back health education.
Back health in physical literacy.
Educational models in back health education.
Systematic reviews of interventions in back health education.
Measuring instruments for the development of back health education in educational contexts.
The current state of teacher training for the development of interventions for back health education: knowledge of the content and didactic knowledge of the content.
The current state of knowledge and habits of the school population (primary and secondary) about back health.
Education for back health: an intervention based on comprehensive models.
Evidence of the implications of back health education on back health: a longitudinal study.
Challenges for research in back health education in the 21st century.

Dr. Manuel Monfort-Pañego
Prof. Dr. Vicente Miñana-Signes
Guest Editors

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Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

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Keywords

teaching educational models problem-based learning service-learning learning community interdisciplinary socio-ecological model methodology didactic resources physical education knowledge postural habits questionnaires reliability and validity back health education nonspecific low back pain primary school secondary school long live education

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Published Papers (8 papers)

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Research

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12 pages, 778 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Risk Factors for Back Pain among Southern Brazilian School Children: A 6-Year Prospective Cohort Study

by Bruna Nichele da Rosa, Matias Noll, Cláudia Tarragô Candotti and Jefferson Fagundes Loss

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19(14), 8322; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19148322 - 7 Jul 2022

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 1986

Abstract

Risk factors associated with back pain vary in different countries. Given the lack of studies in Latin America, our study aimed to assess back pain and its associated factors for six years in Southern Brazilian school children. All children attending the fifth grade of Teutônia, Brazil, were invited to participate in the study. Only schoolchildren who did not report back pain were included in the first assessment. The schoolchildren completed the Back Pain and Body Posture Evaluation Instrument (BackPEI) during three assessments (2011, 2014, and 2017). BackPEI assesses the presence of back pain and possible associated risk factors (postural, behavioral, and sociodemographic). Generalized estimated equations (GEE) were used to perform a Poisson regression model with robust variance for longitudinal analysis. After six years of follow-up, 75 schoolchildren completed all the assessments. The risk factors associated with back pain were spending more than six hours daily watching television, lifting objects from the ground adopting an inadequate posture, using another backpack type different from those with two straps, and carrying a backpack in an asymmetric way. These results are important in guiding the planning of public policies to minimize this public health problem. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Comprehensive Back Health Education: Teaching and Learning)

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11 pages, 1427 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Lower-Limb Range of Motion Predicts Sagittal Spinal Misalignments in Children: A Case-Control Study

by Antonio Cejudo

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19(9), 5193; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19095193 - 25 Apr 2022

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2086

Abstract

The main objective of this study was to determine lower-limb range of motion (ROM) as a risk factor associated with sagittal spinal misalignments in children. Two hundred and one children (10.9 ± 0.7 years old) from five different primary schools were recruited for this retrospective case—control study. Anthropometric variables, sagittal spinal alignment in habitual everyday postures, and lower-limb ROM, such as ankle dorsiflexion with the knee flexed (ADF-KF), hip extension with the knee relaxed (HE), and hip flexion with the knee extended (HF-KE) were measured. Multivariate and univariate analyses revealed differences between the means of HE and HF-KE ROM, and the thoracic and lumbar curves (p ≤ 0.034; η² ≥ 0.052). The HE (p ≤ 0.028; OR ≥ 1.066) predicted sagittal thoracic misalignment in the slump sitting (SSP) and relaxed standing (RSP) postures in males and the sagittal lumbar misalignment in the RSP in female children; while HF-KE (p ≤ 0.006; OR ≥ 1.089) predicted sagittal thoracic misalignment in the maximum trunk forward flexion posture (MTFP) and sagittal lumbar misalignment in SSP and MTFP in males. In this study, the reference values for restricted HE and HF-KE were significantly associated with sagittal spinal misalignment in male children but not for the ankle ROM. Physical education teachers should include stretching exercises in the ISQUIOS programme to increase the extensibility of the iliopsoas (HE) and hamstrings (HF-KE) and prevent sagittal spinal misalignments in habitual everyday postures. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Comprehensive Back Health Education: Teaching and Learning)

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10 pages, 1439 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Back Pain and Body Posture Evaluation Instrument for Children and Adolescents (BackPEI-CA): Expansion, Content Validation, and Reliability

by Bruna Nichele da Rosa, Cláudia Tarragô Candotti, Luiza Rampi Pivotto, Matias Noll, Marcelle Guimarães Silva, Adriane Vieira and Jefferson Fagundes Loss

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19(3), 1398; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19031398 - 27 Jan 2022

Cited by 9 | Viewed by 4992

Abstract

The Back Pain and Body Posture Evaluation Instrument (BackPEI) was created in 2013 to assess back pain and its risk factors in school children. However, it does not assess neck pain or the habits of mobile device usage, which are aspects that are often part of school children’s lives. Therefore, we aimed to update the BackPEI questionnaire to include new questions assessing aspects related to neck pain and the use of mobile devices and to test the content validity and reliability of the new questions. The updated questionnaire was named Back Pain and Body Posture Evaluation Instrument for Children and Adolescents (BackPEI-CA). The content was validated by eight experts using the content validity index (CVI). To assess reliability, the BackPEI-CA questionnaire was applied at two different times in 105 school children, and Cohen’s kappa (k) and intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) were calculated. All aspects assessed regarding content validity had a CVI higher than 0.8. The new questions presented moderate and good kappa values and excellent ICC values. The updated version of BackPEI-CA can be used as a clinic tool for assessing the presence, frequency, and intensity of back and neck pain and their risk factors. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Comprehensive Back Health Education: Teaching and Learning)

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14 pages, 674 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Prevalence and Characteristics of Back Pain in Children and Adolescents from the Region of Murcia (Spain): ISQUIOS Programme

by María Teresa Martínez-Romero, Antonio Cejudo and Pilar Sainz de Baranda

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19(2), 946; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19020946 - 15 Jan 2022

Cited by 10 | Viewed by 2635

Abstract

Puberty is a vulnerable period for musculoskeletal disorders due to the existence of a wide inter-individual variation in growth and development. The main objective of the present study was to describe the prevalence of back pain (BP) in the past year and month in school-aged children according to sex, age, maturity status, body mass index (BMI) and pain characteristics. This study involved 513 students aged between 9 and 16 years. Anthropometric measures were recorded to calculate the maturity stage of the students using a regression equation comprising measures for age, body mass, body height, sitting height and leg length. An ad hoc questionnaire composed of eight questions was used to describe BP prevalence in school-aged children. The results showed that the prevalence of BP in school-aged children was observed in 35.1% over the last year (45% boys and 55% girls), and 17.3% (40.4% boys and 59.6% girls, with an association found between female sex and BP) in the last month. The prevalence of back pain in the past year and month was higher the older the students were, or the more pubertal development they had experienced. The prevalence of BP in the last year was also higher in those with overweight or obesity. After adjustment for sex, there was an association between BP and older age and higher BMI in boys and an association between BP and higher pubertal development in girls. In summary, the present study showed that the prevalence of BP was related to the maturity stage and weight of the participants, with different prevalence patterns found according to sex. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Comprehensive Back Health Education: Teaching and Learning)

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13 pages, 1485 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Validation of Two Instruments for the Correct Allocation of School Furniture in Secondary Schools to Prevent Back Pain

by Alfonso Gutiérrez-Santiago, Iván Prieto-Lage, José María Cancela-Carral and Adrián Paramés-González

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19(1), 20; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19010020 - 21 Dec 2021

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2410

Abstract

Background: Back pain is common in secondary school students. If we adjust the school furniture to the anthropometric characteristics of the pupils, we will improve their posture and reduce back pain. There is a high degree of mismatch between the furniture used by students and that which should be used. The objectives of this research are to discover the degree of mismatch and validate two instruments that allow a correct allocation of the furniture. Methods: The selected sample was 132 secondary students (14.08 ± 1.10 years). An anthropometer was used to determine the ideal height of the chair and table; data were taken from body segments. The recorded values were compared with those obtained by the two measurement instruments to be validated. Inter-measurer and intra-measurer reliability and validation were performed using t-tests and Pearson’s coefficient, respectively. Different analysis techniques were used: descriptive, one-way ANOVA, t-test, and effect size. The established level of significance was ρ < 0.05. Results: The mismatch between the anthropometric dimensions of the students and the existing furniture in the classrooms was 98.5 % for the chairs and 100 % for the tables. The correlational analysis of the instruments to be validated shows an r = 0.993 in the chair and r = 0.996 in the table. Conclusions: There is a high degree of mismatch between the furniture and the anthropometric characteristics of the students. The proposed furniture allocation instruments are adequate. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Comprehensive Back Health Education: Teaching and Learning)

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10 pages, 339 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Knowledge of Low Back Pain among Primary School Teachers

by Josep Vidal-Conti, Gemma Carbonell, Jaume Cantallops and Pere A Borràs

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2021, 18(21), 11306; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph182111306 - 28 Oct 2021

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 3507

Abstract

Low back pain (LBP) is a prevalent musculoskeletal disease that affects a large percentage of the working population, including teachers. The World Health Organization has identified the school as an effective environment for improving child health. For this reason, the figure of the teacher is a fundamental piece in the process of knowledge acquisition about postural education and prevention of LBP among schoolchildren. The present study aims to determine the knowledge of postural education and back pain prevention among primary school teachers. This cross-sectional study evaluated 85 primary school teachers from Majorca (Spain), of whom 17.6% were physical education teachers and 82.4% were classroom teachers. The study was based on two different structured and self-administered questionnaires to investigate into specific knowledge about LBP: Low Back Pain Knowledge Questionnaire (LKQ) and COSACUES-AEF Questionnaire. The results demonstrated a lifetime prevalence of LBP of 96.5% with significant differences determined by sex. The knowledge of participants about LBP was 17.3 in LKQ (range scale 0–24) and 4.3 in COSACUES (range scale 1–10). In conclusion, the teachers knowledge is insufficient to carry out an efficient and useful health promotion program among schoolchildren to prevent LBP. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Comprehensive Back Health Education: Teaching and Learning)

10 pages, 335 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Cross-Cultural Adaptation and Reliability of the Back Pain and Body Posture Evaluation Instrument (BackPEI) to the Spanish Adolescent Population

by Vicente Miñana-Signes, Manuel Monfort-Pañego, Joan Morant and Matias Noll

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2021, 18(3), 854; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18030854 - 20 Jan 2021

Cited by 10 | Viewed by 3253

Abstract

The prevalence of back pain (BP) among children and adolescents has increased over recent years. Some authors advocate promoting back-health education in the school setting. It is therefore important to adopt a uniform suite of assessment instruments to measure the various constructs. The present study aimed to perform a cultural adaptation of a validated measurement instrument (BackPEI), beginning with a translation and cultural adaptation phase, followed by a second phase to test reliability using a test-retest design. The translation and cross-cultural adaptation were performed based on the guidelines. Reliability was tested by applying the questionnaire to 224 secondary school students, at two different times with a 7-day interval between the tests. In general, the Spanish version presented adequate agreement for questions 1–20, with only question 9 achieving a low Kappa range of 0.312 (−0.152–0.189). The question about pain intensity did not show differences between the test means (4.72 ± 2.33) and re-test (4.58 ± 2.37) (p = 0.333), and the responses for these two tests obtained a high correlation (ICC = 0.951 (0.928–0.966); p = 0.0001). Psychometric testing indicated that the Spanish version of the BackPEI is well-adapted and reliable, based on the test–retest design, providing similar results to the original Brazilian version. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Comprehensive Back Health Education: Teaching and Learning)

Review

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18 pages, 1376 KiB

Open AccessReview

Teaching Back Health in the School Setting: A Systematic Review of Randomized Controlled Trials

by Vicente Miñana-Signes, Manuel Monfort-Pañego and Javier Valiente

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2021, 18(3), 979; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18030979 - 22 Jan 2021

Cited by 12 | Viewed by 3237

Abstract

School-based interventions have reported effectiveness on back health; however, there are no specific guidelines for teaching body mechanics and posture in primary and secondary schools. To identify, describe, and analyze the educative features of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) on back health developed to date in the school setting, a systematic review was performed following the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses (PRISMA) recommendations. RCTs exclusively focused on educational setting electronic databases included PubMed, EMBASE, PEDro, Web of Science, SPORTDiscus, ERIC, and MEDLINE on the Ovid platform. Databases were searched for potentially eligible studies from the earliest date up to 18th March 2020. A total of 584 records were obtained from the database searches. A total of six articles that applied inclusion criteria were assessed for eligibility. All of these studies found improvements in postural habits and the level of knowledge with regard to back health, as well as a reduction in the prevalence of back pain. None of the studies used the student-centered method, and three studies used evaluation instruments with a pilot validation. Research on RCT interventions concerning back health in the school setting is scarce. None of the interventions applied a constructivist or student-centered method. The use of validated and standardized assessment instruments is required. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Comprehensive Back Health Education: Teaching and Learning)

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