Development of the young spine questionnaire.

Area of Science:

• Pediatric Orthopedics
• Public Health
• Epidemiology

Background:

• Childhood back pain is prevalent and linked to adult back pain.
• Research on pediatric spinal issues is limited, with no specific child-focused questionnaires.
• Existing tools focus on adults, creating a gap in pediatric spinal pain assessment.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate a questionnaire for assessing spinal pain and its consequences in schoolchildren.
• To address the lack of specific measurement tools for pediatric back pain.

Main Methods:

• The Young Spine Questionnaire (YSQ) was developed through conceptualization, development, and testing phases.
• Utilized the Wilson and Cleary model, incorporating existing items and the Revised Faces Pain Scale (rFPS).
• Employed mixed quantitative and qualitative methods in two pilot tests with 4th graders, focusing on validity and understanding.

Main Results:

• The YSQ was refined by simplifying questions and omitting pain drawings.
• High agreement was found between questionnaire prevalence estimates and interviews (83.7%-97.9%).
• Correlations between the rFPS and interview pain scores ranged from 0.67 to 0.79, indicating good validity.

Conclusions:

• The Young Spine Questionnaire (YSQ) effectively assesses spinal pain and its consequences in children.
• The questionnaire demonstrates feasibility, content validity, and good understanding among 9-11 year olds.
• The YSQ is a well-understood tool suitable for research on pediatric spinal pain.