Archives of Disease in Childhood 2009;94:627-632
ORIGINAL ARTICLES
Joint hypermobility and its relationship to musculoskeletal pain in schoolchildren: a cross-sectional study
Paediatric Department, Maurizio Bufalini Hospital, Cesena, Italy
Dr V Leone, 18 Fleming Place, Fountainhall, Galashiels TD1 2TA, UK; valentinaleone{at}doctors.org.uk
Objectives: To determine if joint hypermobility is associated with musculoskeletal pain in a population of Italian schoolchildren.
Design: Cross-sectional, school-based study, using a pretested questionnaire administered to schoolchildren to enquire about musculoskeletal pain and Beighton criteria, with score of 
5 as a cut-off, to test for hypermobility.
Setting: Eight primary schools in the town of Cesena, Italy.
Participants: 1230 Italian schoolchildren aged 7 to 15 years representing an opportunistic sample of 10% of the schoolchildren in Cesena
Main outcome measures: (1) The strength of association between hypermobiliy and musculoskeletal pain; (2) the impact of hypermobility on daily activities, using a subjective "disability score" and a "physical activity score."
Analysis: Sample size calculation for evaluating if hypermobility was associated with musculoskeletal pain was performed prior starting the study. Children experiencing pain at least once a week were used as cases, children experiencing pain seldom or never served as controls.
Results: A total of 1046 consenting Italian schoolchildren (mean age 10.8 years) were included. The prevalence of musculoskeletal pain reported by schoolchildren was 18%. 22% of children with musculoskeletal pain versus 23% of controls had hypermobility (OR 1.057, 95% CI 0.7 to 1.4). Functional limitations measured by a "disability score" correlated in a weak negative way with Beighton score (p = 0.03). The "physical activity score" correlated in a weak positive way with Beighton score (p = 0.012).
Conclusions: No association was found between hypermobility and musculoskeletal pain. Hypermobile children did not experience functional limitations in daily activities, and they were slightly more active than non-hypermobile children.
CiteULike 
Complore 
Connotea 
Del.icio.us 
Digg 
Reddit 
Technorati What's this?
- Full Text
- Full Text (PDF)
-
All Versions of this Article:
adc.2008.150839v1
adc.2008.150839v2
94/8/627 most recent - Submit a response
- Alert me when this article is cited
- Alert me when eLetters are posted
- Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
- Email this link to a friend
- Similar articles in ADC Online
- Similar articles in PubMed
- Add article to my folders
- Download to citation manager
- Request Permissions
Google Scholar
PubMed
Topic Collections
Bookmark with
Register for free content
The full back archive is now available for all BMJ Journals. Institutional subscribers may access the entire archive as part of their subscription. Personal subscribers will also have access to all content when logged in. Non-subscribers who register have free access to all articles published before 2006 right back to volume 1 issue 1. Register here to access the free archive of all BMJ Journals.
Don't forget to sign up for content alerts so you keep up to date with all the articles as they are published.
