Questions under study: On surveys, about every fifth child in the school age reports back pain. There is a dearth of literature on the association between functional stability and back pain in children.
Objective: To examine the association between functional stability, measured with the Matthiasstest, and "back pain during the last week".
Methods: We used data from a cross-sectional survey on third, fourth and fifth grade school-years (128 children aged between 8 and 12 years) in seven different classes in two different rural regions of Switzerland, to evaluate in an explorative manner the association between the score of the Matthiass-test and low back pain and upper back pain in the last week with two multivariable logistic regressions.
Results: The Matthiass-test score, controlled for age, sex and language region of the school, was significantly associated with low back pain in the last week (adjusted odds ratio 1.77 with an 95% confidence interval from 1.08 to 2.91) and non significantly with the upper back pain in the last week (adjusted odds ratio 1.67 with an 95% confidence interval from 0.98 to 2.81).
Conclusion: The Matthiass-test score is associated with low back pain. Because of the exploratory character of this study, these results should be regarded with caution. Whether a high score on the Matthiass-test could be a risk factor for back pain should be evaluated in prospective studies.