Gender Mediation in Adolescents’ Back Pain and Physical Fitness: A Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

There is a lack of studies that analyze the interaction between risk variables as predictors of back pain (BP) in adolescents. The objectives of this study were to examine the relationship be- tween BP and several risk variables, and to analyze the effect of the mediation of gender in this association. This cross-sectional study included n = 617 adolescents (mean age: 14.10 ± 1.18 years old) who completed the BP Adolescent Survey and who performed the bench trunk curl (BTC) and Sorensen (SOR) tests. Males showed a significantly lower prevalence (OR: 0.67) and frequency (con- tingency coefficient: 1.73) of BP than females, less participation in leisure-time sedentary behaviors (LRSBs) per day of more than 2 h (Cramer´s V: 0.110), a higher sufficient Physical Activity (PA) (Cramer´s V: 0.323) and a higher score in the BTC test (Contingency coefficient: 0.346). A high BTC score indicated significantly lower risk of BP than mid (OR: 1.74; p = 0.025) or low (OR: 1.62; p = 0.022) BTC. The mediation analysis showed a significant indirect effect with a significant value for the Sobel test (z = 7.45 ± 0.111). When the BTC test value was included in the equations, the connec- tion between gender and BP was no longer significant. There was a difference in the prevalence between gender in BP and LRSB and PA. BP was associated with the SOR test. The association be- tween BP and gender was mediated by SOR results.