Investigation of influencing factors associated with neck-shoulder symptoms among middle school students in three cities in China / 中华预防医学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective@#The aim of this study was to describe the distribution of neck-shoulder symptoms among middle school students, and to explore its influence factors.@*Methods@#A cross-sectional survey was conducted on 24 middle schools in Shenyang, Zhengzhou and Shenzhen by purposive sampling method. In each middle school, 3 to 4 classes were selected from each grade all the students in the selected class would be recruited to the survey to investigate the demographic characteristics, neck-shoulder symptoms, physical exercise time, academic stress, screen behavior, sedentary behavior and other information by questionnaire. A total of 10 566 questionnaires were issued and 10 270 valid questionnaires were withdrawn. The prevalence of neck-shoulder symptoms among students were compared by different characteristics. Logistic regression models were applied to examine influencing factors associated with neck-shoulder symptoms.@*Results@#The prevalence of neck-shoulder symptoms among middle school students was 19.2% (1 968/10 270), while it was 22.6% (1 137/5 039) among girls and 15.9% (831/5 231) among boys; the difference showed statistical significance (P<0.001). The prevalence of neck-shoulder symptoms was separately 13.3% (253/1 901) in seventh grade, 16.8% (326/1 942) in eighth grade, 18.5% (299/1 617) in ninth grade, 21.8% (417/1 915) in sophomore, 21.4% (345/1 611) in junior, 25.5% (328/1 284) in senior; the difference showed statistical significance (P<0.001). The multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that in the last 3 months, students who always playing mobile phone ≥40 min continuously (OR=4.66, 95%CI 3.95-5.49), watching TV ≥40 min continuously (OR=4.01, 95%CI 3.39-4.73), using computer ≥40 min continuously (OR=3.61, 95%CI 3.09-4.23), doing homework ≥60 min continuously (OR=3.25, 95%CI 2.79-3.79), the average daily sitting time ≥10 h (OR=4.95, 95%CI 4.25-5.77), and always sitting ≥90 min continuously (OR=5.18, 95%CI 4.42-6.06) were risk factors of neck-shoulder symptoms.@*Conclusion@#The prevalence of neck-shoulder symptoms was high among middle school students in China, especially girls in senior grades. Long time, high frequency video behaviors and sedentary behaviors were related to the occurrence of neck-shoulder symptoms among middle school students.