Psychological Distress, Skipped Meals, and Insufficient Sleep, and the Occurrence of Back Pain in Adolescent Female Soccer Players: The Karolinska Football Injury Cohort StudyShow others and affiliations
2025 (English)In: SPORTS HEALTH-A MULTIDISCIPLINARY APPROACH, ISSN 1941-7381Article in journal (Refereed) Epub ahead of print
Abstract [en]
Background: There is growing awareness that back pain in adolescent soccer (European football) players is not always related to local tissue damage. Approaches taking into consideration lifestyle factors are needed. This study aimed to investigate the association between psychological distress, skipped meals, and insufficient sleep, and the occurrence of back pain among adolescent female soccer players.Hypothesis: Psychological distress, skipped meals, and insufficient sleep are associated with the occurrence of back pain.Study Design: Cohort study.Level of Evidence: Level 3.Methods: Swedish adolescent female soccer players aged 12 to 17 years, without back pain at baseline, were included. The exposures psychological distress, skipped meals, and insufficient sleep were assessed at baseline. The players were followed for 1 year with a weekly web-based survey, where back pain intensity was measured on a numeric rating scale (NRS) ranging from 0 to 10. The outcome back pain was defined as reporting low back pain and/or upper back/neck pain intensity of >= 4 on the NRS. Multivariable Cox proportional hazard regression analyses were performed to estimate the hazard rate ratio (HRR) with 95% CI for the association between each exposure and the outcome back pain, adjusted for age at baseline and parents' education.Results: In total, 351 players were included, and 141 players reported back pain at some point during the 1-year follow-up. The adjusted HRR for back pain was 1.79 (95% CI, 1.11-2.91) for insufficient sleep, 1.45 (95% CI, 0.97-2.17) for psychological distress, and 0.98 (95% CI, 0.61-1.59) for skipped meals.Conclusion: Insufficient sleep and psychological distress are associated with the occurrence of back pain among female adolescent soccer players.Clinical Relevance: Our results contribute to the understanding of what may influence the occurrence of back pain in adolescence, offering potential strategies for the prevention of back pain in adolescent female soccer players.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
SAGE PUBLICATIONS INC , 2025.
Keywords [en]
adolescent; back pain; cohort study; football; insufficient sleep; psychological distress
National Category
Physiotherapy
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:liu:diva-212832DOI: 10.1177/19417381251326498ISI: 001453981800001PubMedID: 40145567Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-105001339731OAI: oai:DiVA.org:liu-212832DiVA, id: diva2:1950391
2025-04-072025-04-072025-04-28