Oslo Sports Trauma Research Center

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Information about project titled 'Low back pain among endurance athletes (follow-up)'

Low back pain among endurance athletes (follow-up)

Details about the project - category Details about the project - value
Project status: Published
Project manager: Ida Stange Foss
Supervisor(s): Roald Bahr

Description

This is a follow-up investigation based on a cross-sectional survey of cross-country skiers, rowers, orienteerers and nonathletic controls from 2000 (Bahr et al. 2004). The result from the previous study indicates that there is a high prevalence of low back pain among rowers and cross-country skiers compared to orienteerers and nonathletic controls.

Since 2000 several cross-sectional studies that deal with rowers and cross-country skiers have been published (Bergstrøm et al. 2004, Alricsson & Werner 2005 and Smoljanovic et al. 2009). These results are in accordance with the result presenting by Bahr et al. (2004). Still, there is no prospective cohort study examining the effect of intensive rowing and cross-country ski training may have on subsequent low back function and pain.

 

Thus, the purpose of this presenting study is to investigate the prevalence of low back pain after many years of training and competition in rowing and cross-country skiing, using orienteerers and inactive individuals as control groups.

 

Methods

All the participants (257 cross-country skiers, 199 rowers, 227 orienteerers and 158 nonathletic controls) that took part in the cross-sectional survey in 2000 will be asked to answer a self-report questionnaire similar to that used in 2000. Written informed consent will be obtained from all participants, and they will be asked permission to be contacted for a second follow-up investigation 5-10 years from now.