Self-Reported Neck Pain and Associated Risk Factors Among Adolescent Madrassa Students in Karachi, Pakistan; A Cross-Sectional Study

Background: Neck pain is the most common health issue, more prevalent in adolescents and they are susceptible to chronic neck pain in the future. This pain is caused by various modifiable and non-modifiable risk factors in young adults, including physical and functional factors, although head posture is the prime causative factor among them. Objective: To determine the frequency of neck pain and its associated risk factors among adolescent madrassa students of Karachi, Pakistan. Methods: An observational cross-sectional design had been conducted by using non-probability purposive sampling and the sample size of 378 was calculated by using Open-Epi version 3.0 with a confidence level of 95%. The written consent and questionnaire consisting of part A demographics and part B of questions regarding posture, study duration and pain frequency were filled by each student while considering the ethical considerations. Frequency and percentage were calculated for all qualitative variables. The chi-square test was applied to identify the association between different variables while p-value≤0.05 was considered as significant. Results: Neck pain frequently occurs in both gender and out of 378 individuals, 354 (93.6%) respondents had neck pain while only 24 (6.34%) reported no pain. According to this study, neck pain is more prevalent in females (96.7%) as compared to males (90.8%). The numerical pain rating scale showed that 112 (61.5%) of the 182 females suffered mild pain, 60 (32.9%) had moderate and 4 (2.19%) reported severe neck pain. Among 196 male respondents, 89 (45.4%) reported mild pain, 20 (10.2%) suffered severe pain, and 18 (9.1%) had no pain. Impaired head alignment while studying, prolonged study hours without a break and flexed neck posture despite sitting are the contributing risk factors for having neck pain. Conclusion: Bad posture, poor sitting ergonomics,and prlong study duration are the key factors for causing neck pain. It also concluded that the majority of the population (93.65%) was having neck pain whereas only 6.35% of adolescent students had no cervicalgia.