[Exploratory study on spinal musculoskeletal health of osteopathy students]

During their training, students in osteopathy regularly undergo spinal manipulation exercises. This exposes the students' spine to unskilled gestures performed by their colleagues learning spinal manipulation. Discomfort, muscle soreness or moderate pain following spinal manipulations lasting two or three days are commonly reported. In addition, some students may have ongoing spinal musculoskeletal disease (SMSD) during their studies. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of SMSDs and their maximum intensity in a population of osteopathy students and to determine whether individual differences exist.

An exploratory cross-sectional study took place over three years. Data were collected by means of a self-administrated standardised questionnaire screening for MSD: the Nordic questionnaire.

There were 733 exploitable questionnaires, giving an average response rate of 91.5%. Average prevalence of SMSD was 98.4% during the last 12 months. Average maximum intensity perceived was 6/10 and 45% of students experienced an intense SMSD (scored between 7 and 10/10). Variation of the maximum intensity of SMSD between "before osteopathy studies" and "the last 12 months" was 1.2/10. This variation was influenced by the number of days students were manipulated during a week (p<0.0001). On average, students underwent manipulation three days a week.

This study confirms the important prevalence of SMSD among osteopathy students. This result led us to carry out a qualitative study for exploring students' conceptions in health and spinal manipulative practices.