Knowledge and Practices of Back Care, Experience in Colombian Children

Early back care has become the preventive strategy to mitigate bad postural habits and musculoskeletal alterations that trigger inadequate postural patterns in the body schema. The objective was to determine the knowledge and practice of back care in first-grade school children after applying an educational intervention for back care. Quasi-experimental study with pre-test and post-tests in a sample of 71 first grade school students. Knowledge and practices for back care were evaluated before and after of the intervention. During 5 weeks, a program of education for back care was developed in the intervention group, formed by concepts about anatomy, physiology, alterations of the spine, adoption of appropriate postures and movements in school life and the execution of adequate movements learned. Simultaneously, physical exercises based on aerobic work, strengthening and stretching the back muscles were carried out with the children in the control group. A linear regression model and a two-level hierarchical model were applied to estimate the effect of the intervention. After the execution of the back care education program, a better score was found in the knowledge and practice questionnaire, which was different between the intervention group and the control group (1.72 95% CI 1.21-2.24). The development of an education program generated a change in the score of the questionnaire on knowledge of back care in the intervnetion group, which suggests the implementation of these strategies in the school context during early childhood, contributing to the prevention of back disorders and deficiencies.