Low Back Pain Among Care-seeking Families in General Practice (The YoungBack Project): a Prospective Parallel Cohort Study in 400 Children and Adolescents and Their Parents
Low Back Pain Among Care-seeking Families in General Practice (The YoungBack Project): a Prospective Parallel Cohort Study in 400 Children and Adolescents and Their Parents
Background Low back pain (LBP) is the largest cause of years lived with disability worldwide and often associated with low quality of life, inability to work and low physical activity levels. In Danish general practice, LBP accounts for nearly 10% of all yearly consultations, making it the number one reason for consulting a general practitioner in Denmark. An increase in care-seeking children and adolescents with LBP in general practice is seen in the pre-teen-age-years.
At present, no study has investigated on the natural prognosis of LBP among care-seeking adolescents in general practice. Furthermore, the potential impact of patient and parent-related factors on prognosis remains unknown. The aims of the study are to 1) investigate the natural prognosis of LBP and 2) identify patient and parent-related factors which my influence prognosis.
Methods Adolescents aged 8 to 19 years consulting their general practitioner due to LBP will be invited to participate in this prospective cohort study. One parent of each patient will be invited to be a part of the parallel cohort. Online questionnaires will be used to collect data on patient characterises, pain intensity, pain frequency, medication, health-related quality of life, physical activity and illness perception at baseline and at the one-year follow-up. Data on pain intensity and parent-related worries will be collected through biweekly text messages. LBP will be assessed by latent class analysis.
Discussion This study will be the first to uncover the natural prognosis of LBP within a young, care-seeking population in general practice and to investigate if factors related to the patient or parents influence prognosis.
Inclusion Criteria:
For adolescents in the primary cohort:
For parents in the parallel cohort:
- parent or legal guardian of included adolescents
Exclusion Criteria:
- not providing informed consent.