Back functioning: the effectiveness of an intervention promoting good body mechanics in elementary schoolchildren

While back pain in childhood is a common condition, at young age symptoms are generally mild, do not often lead to restrictions of daily activities and represent little health consequences. However, the predictive value of back pain at young age for back pain as an adult, stresses the need for primary prevention. The multi-factorial nature of the risk for developing back pain in childhood is widely accepted. On the other hand, the causative mechanisms for back pain occurrence at young age remain largely undetermined. Based on epidemiological evidence in relation to the biomechanical concept suggesting a U-shaped relationship for optimal loading, several correlates may influence children’s back function. In this way, environmental factors that may counterbalance optimal spinal loading of children’s young body structures may be present at school, which is the workplace of the young. In this line, children’s postural behavior in the Flemish class environment was pictured. This pilot study was grounded because sitting is the most reported factor in relation to back pain reporting at young age and due to the reality that standard school managements prescribe long sitting periods. The study findings pointed out that prolonged static kyphotic sitting without use of the backrest is common in Flemish elementary schoolchildren and children who spend more time sitting with a flexed trunk reported significantly more thoraco-lumbar pain