1042 - A Novel Multifaceted Education and Exercise to Address Low Back Pain in Adolescent Rowers: Preliminary Findings

Friday, February 23, 2024

5:00 PM – 6:30 PM EDT

Presenting Author(s)

GR

George Raum, DO

Resident Physician (PGY3)
University of Pittsburgh Medical Center
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States

Co-Author(s)

MG

Michael S. Glicksman, MD

Resident Physician
UPMC Dept. of PM&R
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States
RT

Ryan Thompson, PT

Physical Therapist
University of Pittsburgh Medical Center
Wexford, Pennsylvania, United States
KD

Kaitlin Devan, PT

Physical Therapist
University of Pittsburgh Medical Center
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States
RN

Ryan P. Nussbaum, DO

Attending Physician, Sports Medicine Fellowship Director
University of Pittsburgh Medical Center
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States
CR

Corey Ratsch, BS

Athletic Trainer
University of Pittsburgh Medical Center
Cranberry Township, Pennsylvania, United States
SH

Suehun Ho, MD

Attending Physician
University of Pittsburgh Medical Center
Wexford, Pennsylvania, United States

Objectives:

Low back pain (LBP) commonly affects adolescent athletes, and rowers are particularly at risk. This adolescent LBP may serve as a risk factor for future recurrence, which has implications for overall health and function. Therefore, we created an intervention for adolescent rowers with the hopes of reducing the incidence of LBP and better preparing them to cope with LBP if experienced. As part of this intervention, we sought to: (1) determine the baseline prevalence of LBP in this adolescent rowing population, (2) evaluate the team’s current warm-up/resistance training program and implement evidence-based alterations, (3) create an educational presentation on LBP and the importance of nutrition, sleep, mood, and exercise, and (4) assess the longitudinal efficacy of this program on the knowledge, incidence of LBP, and confidence in completing self-guided exercise.

Design: Prospective Cohort Study

Results: 22 athletes of ages ranging from 12 to 17 years completed the baseline measures. Overall, athletes were least confident in their ability to explain how their mood could impact their pain, and most confident that strength training is important to sport. There was no significant difference between genders in confidence of knowledge of any of the factors impacting pain, or baseline pain measures. There was no correlation between age and confidence of knowledge of any of the factors impacting pain, or baseline pain measures.

Conclusions: Our results suggest that adolescent rowers have a limited understanding of how mood may impact LBP. Given the association between psychological concerns and the development and chronicity of LBP, an improved understanding could benefit these athletes both during their season and long-term. Further completion and analysis of the results is required to fully evaluate the efficacy of this multifaceted education and exercise program on the incidence of LBP in adolescent rowers, and on their understanding of the complicated and interrelated nature of LBP.