Investigation of widespread pain and other musculoskeletal symptoms among athletes registered to Havza Youth and Sports District Directorate

Abstract

PURPOSE Sports are physical activities that people do within systematic and regular rules in order to win and be successful by using their determination to fight. Sports are activities that are embodied in various branches by specializing physical education activities and are expected to positively affect physical and mental health. Youth centers are institutions that bring children from different age groups together and encourage sports. The prevalence of widespread pain is high in school-age children. Depression is associated with poor school performance and absenteeism. It was aimed to examine widespread pain and other musculoskeletal symptoms in athletes registered with Havza Youth and Sports District Directorate and attending the Youth Center, and to evaluate their effects on school success and absenteeism. In addition, the aim of the study was expanded to evaluate short-term changes in terms of musculoskeletal problems before and after training by providing exercise training and coping with musculoskeletal system problems. METHODS In addition to the demographic data of the participants, their school success, absence periods in the last month, pain complaints, duration and intensity, presence of tender points, frequency of complaints other than pain, temporomandibular joint complaints, depression (Depression Scale developed for children) and quality of life (PEDsQL 4.0) scores were examined. RESULTS 29 athletes, 7 of whom were girls, were included in the study. The average age was 12.1±1.4 years. 11 athletes participated in the evaluation one month after the training. After the training, the frequency of complaints other than pain and the frequency of tender points were numerically lower. While there were 2 athletes who reported having chronic (>3 months) pain before training, there were no athletes who had chronic pain after training. The number of people with non-chronic pain decreased from 10 to 6 one month after the training. There was no significant difference between those with chronic pain, those with chronic pain, and those without pain in terms of self-evaluation of school success and success grade (p=0.694 and p=0.094, respectively). Discontinuation was significantly less in those without pain (p=0.008). No significant difference was detected between the depression score, quality of life scores and all subgroups evaluated before and one month after the training (p>0.05). CONCLUSION Widespread chronic pain is not common in athlete children, but non-chronic pain is more common. Training and exercise programs to cope with musculoskeletal problems may reduce the frequency of pain in the short term.

Keywords

• Musculoskeletal system
• Sports
• Widespread pain

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