LUMBAR MOBILITY AND LOW-BACK-PAIN DURING ADOLESCENCE - A LONGITUDINAL3-YEAR FOLLOW-UP-STUDY IN ATHLETES AND CONTROLS

in this 3-year longitudinal study, we studied lumbar mobility and the occurrence of low back pain among 98 adolescents who were free of prev ious severe low back pain: 33 nonathletes (16 boys, 17 girls), 34 boy athletes (ice hockey and soccer players) and 31 girl athletes (figure skaters and gymnasts). During the followup, low back pain lasting long er than 1 week was reported by 29 athletes (15 boys and 14 girls) and by 6 nonathletes (3 boys and 3 girls). in multivariate analyses, parti cipation in sports and low maximal lumbar flexion at the baseline pred icted low back pain during the followup among boys; however, these fac tors accounted for only 16% of the variability between the groups with and without low back pain. Among girls, decreased range of motion in the lower lumbar segments, low maximal lumbar extension, and high body weight at the baseline were predictive of low back pain during the fo llowup, accounting for 31% of the variability between the groups. The girls in the lowest tertile of maximal lumbar extension at baseline ha d a relative risk of 3.4 to have future low back pain compared with th ose in the highest tertile. We conclude that the low individual physio logic maximum of lower segment lumbar extension mobility may cause ove rloading of the low back among athletes involved in sports with freque nt maximal lumbar extension and that it predicts future low back pain.