Generalized joint hypermobility among school-aged children in Majmaah region, Saudi Arabia

Mohamed Sherif Sirajudeen; Mohamed Waly; Mazen Alqahtani; Msaad Alzhrani; Fahad Aldhafiri; Hariraja Muthusamy; Radhakrishnan Unnikrishnan; Rashmi Saibannavar; Wafa Alrubaia; Gopal Nambi

doi:10.7717/peerj.9682

Generalized joint hypermobility among school-aged children in Majmaah region, Saudi Arabia

PeerJ. 2020 Aug 11:8:e9682. doi: 10.7717/peerj.9682. eCollection 2020.

Affiliations

¹ Department of Physical Therapy and Health Rehabilitation, College of Applied Medical Sciences, Majmaah University, Majmaah, Saudi Arabia.
² Department of Medical Equipment Technology, College of Applied Medical Sciences, Majmaah University, Majmaah, Saudi Arabia.
³ Department of Public Health, College of Applied Medical Sciences, Majmaah University, Majmaah, Saudi Arabia.
⁴ Department of Physical Therapy and Health Rehabilitation, College of Applied Medical Sciences, Prince Sattam Bin Abdul Aziz University, Alkharj, Saudi Arabia.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Generalized joint hypermobility (GJH) is common among schoolchildren and usually benign. However, it may progressively lead to joint pain and developmental delay. Identifying GJH in school-aged children would facilitate the monitoring of early changes and planning for early rehabilitative intervention. Epidemiological studies addressing the prevalence of GJH among children in the Gulf region and Arab ethnicity are lacking. Hence, we aimed to determine the prevalence, pattern, and factors associated with GJH among school-aged children in the Majmaah region, Saudi Arabia. Male and female school-aged children 8-14 years of age from the Majmaah region of Saudi Arabia participated in this cross-sectional study. Beighton score was used to assess GJH. Personal characteristics such as age, height, weight, body mass index, and handedness were also collected. Descriptive statistics were obtained for personal characteristics, the point prevalence of hypermobility, frequency of Beighton score distribution, and prevalence of GJH. The associations between specific factors and the presence of GJH were analyzed using chi-square and Mann-whitney tests. Using the Beighton score cutoff ≥ 4 and ≥ 6, 15.2% and 7.6% of the school children in our study were diagnosed with GJH respectively. The prevalence of GJH was higher among females (16.8%) than among males (13.4%), but the difference was not statistically significant. The elbow joints (17.2%) were the most common hypermobile joints and the trunk (0.7%) was the least involved. The children with GJH were younger and had lesser BMI compared to children without GJH (P < 0.05). The prevalence reported in this study among school-aged children was comparable with those reported worldwide.

Keywords: Beighton score; Children; Joint hypermobility; Ligamentous laxity; Prevalence; Saudi Arabia.

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the Deanship of Scientific Research at Majmaah University (project no. 38/146). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.