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Background: Musculoskeletal pains are among evident health problems in children and adolescents. Backpack carrying behaviors and the sitting postures are among behavioral factors associated with musculoskeletal pain in schoolchildren. Therefore, this study aims to identify the factors related to these important musculoskeletal behaviors, using Health Promotion Models., Methods: In this cross-sectional study, a questionnaire was created based on PRECEDE Model and Health Belief Model and was administered to 673 Iranian students, whom were selected randomly from elementary schools of Hamadan, Iran, in 2018., Results: The findings of the study revealed that proper sitting postures and backpack carrying were 42 and 33%, respectively. The findings also showed that predisposing factors including perceived susceptibility (p < 0.05, β = 0.219), perceived severity (p < 0.05, β = 0.166), perceived barriers (p < 0.05, β = - 0.191), perceived self-efficacy (p < 0.05, β = 0.188) and also enabling factors (p < 0.05, β = 0.329) were significantly related to sitting behaviors. Moreover, backpack carrying behaviors had significant relationships with predisposing factors of perceived susceptibility (p < 0.05, β = 0.198), perceived barriers (p < 0.05, β = - 0.258), perceived self-efficacy (p < 0.05, β = 0.185) and reinforcing factors (p < 0.05, β = 0.208)., Conclusions: It seems necessary for future preventive programs to take factors of musculoskeletal pains among children and adolescents into account.

Background: Neck and shoulder pain is relatively common among children and teenagers and has a negative impact on their physical and psychological health. This study was carried out to assess the prevalence of neck and shoulder pain among elementary school students, and to investigate the relationship between this pain and its risk factors., Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 693 elementary school students aged 7 to 12 years from Hamadan city, located in western Iran, were selected through the multistage cluster random sampling method. Data were collected through interviews and questionnaires. For the social and psychological variables, the parent version of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) was used. For assessing each student's posture, an observational checklist, the Rapid Upper Limbs Assessment (RULA), was used. The data was analyzed using the unadjusted (univariate) and adjusted (multivariate) logistic regression., Results: The prevalence of the neck pain was slightly higher than that of shoulder pain. The prevalence reported over a month was 35.8 and 30.9% for neck and shoulder pain, respectively. The logistic regression analyses showed that, very high desk height (odds ratio (OR) =1.96, 95% confidence interval CI: 1.02-3.74), backward seat pan inclination (OR = 2.10, 95% CI: 1.37-3.24), forward seat pan inclination (OR = 3.12, 95% CI:1.46-6.68), difficulty in viewing the board (OR = 2.54, 95% CI: 1.10-5.84), too much homework (OR = 2.59, 95% CI: 1.49-4.51), RULA score at level III (OR = 2.88, 95% CI:1.64-5.05), and RULA score at level IV (OR = 3.12, 95% CI: 1.72-5.63) increased the risk of neck pain independently. On the other hand, sitting on desk and seat (OR = 0.59, 95% CI: 0.39-0.91) and laying position for doing homework (OR = 0.53, 95% CI: 0.34-0.81) reduced the related risk. Very short desk height (OR = 2.41, 95% CI: 1.26-4.61) and too much homework (OR = 1.94, 95% CI: 1.10-3.42) increased the risk of shoulder pain., Conclusion: The elementary school students reported a high prevalence of shoulder and neck pain. This study found that improper sitting positions, as well as physical factors such as the school furniture, too much homework, and difficulty in viewing the classroom board, were associated with pain. Proper interventions considering the risk factors assessed in this study, are suggested.

Background: To investigate the combinations of Musculoskeletal pain (MSP) (neck, shoulder, upper and low back pain) among a sample of Iranian school children., Methods: The MSP combinations was modeled by latent class analysis (LCA) to find the clusters of high-risk individuals and multigroup LCA taking into account the gender and age (≤ 13 years and ≥ 14 years of age categories)., Results: The lowest and highest prevalence of MSP was 14.2% (shoulder pain in boys aged ≥14 years) and 40.4% (low back pain in boys aged ≤13 years), respectively. The likelihood of synchronized neck and low back pain (9.4-17.7%) was highest, while synchronized shoulder and upper back pain (4.5-9.4%) had the lowest probability. The probability of pain at three and four locations was significantly lower in boys aged ≥14 years than in other gender-age categories. The LCA divided the children into minor, moderate, and major pain classes. The likelihood of shoulder and upper back pain in the major pain class was higher in boys than in girls, while the likelihood of neck pain in the moderate pain class and low back pain in the major pain class were higher in children aged ≥14 years than those aged ≤13 years. Gender-age specific clustering indicated a higher likelihood of experiencing major pain in children aged ≤13 years., Conclusions: The findings highlight the importance of gender- and age-specific data for a more detailed understanding of the MSP combinations in children and adolescents, and identifying high-risk clusters in this regard.