Spinal pain in children aged 3-9 years: a descriptive study

Home assignment

Author

Emilie Meldgaard

Published

January 30, 2025

Emilie Meldgaard¹

¹ Department of Sports Science and Clinical Biomechanics, University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark

^* Corresponding author

E-mail: emeldgaard@health.sdu.dk

Abstract

This is my first R-project.

Introduction

Spinal pain often begins in childhood, with prevalence rising with age (1,2). Most research targets children aged nine and above (2,3). To understand spinal pain and its development, it is crucial to include younger children. This study aims to describe the number of spinal pain episodes and the length of the episodes as well as determine age at first onset of spinal pain.

Method

Many hours have been spent trying to work out how to handle a long formatted data set in Stata. The long days are over - I have now switched to R.

Results

The median age of first onset of spinal pain for boys was 5.96 years. For girls it was 6.29 years. The distribution of age at first onset of spinal pain with inter quartile range is visualized in the dot plot below.

Figure 1: Dot plot showing the first onset of spinal pain with median age and inter quartile range by gender.

A total of 127 children experienced spinal pain at some time during the years 2017-2020. The box plot illustrates how many episodes were reported by age group and gender. In general the boys had an earlier debut of multiple episodes of spinal pain than the girls.

Figure 2: Box plot showing the average number of spinal pain episodes stratified by age and gender with confidence intervals.

As the parents answered SMS text every fourth Sunday reporting spinal pain or not, the length of the episodes varied in a four-week interval. The violin plot illustrates how most children with spinal pain reported pain within the four week period. Fewer children had episodes lasting for more than four weeks, and individuals had longer lasting episodes for more than eight weeks.

Figure 3: Violin plot showing the length of episodes stratified by age.

Discussion

One of the strengths of this project was the wide palette of plots to try out. Moreover it was a great advantage to have the ability to render the quarto-document and then having the opportunity to make changes while inspecting it in the viewer. A limitation to the project was the great difficulties with the citation and references, and unfortunately it could not be solved.

Conclusions

Future me should practice the folder organizing and learn how to do the citation right.

References

Jeffries LJ, Milanese SF, Grimmer-Somers KA. Epidemiology of Adolescent Spinal Pain: A Systematic Overview of the Research Literature. Spine. 2007 Nov 1;32(23):2630.
Kjaer P, Wedderkopp N, Korsholm L, Leboeuf-Yde C. Prevalence and tracking of back pain from childhood to adolescence. BMC Musculoskelet Disord. 2011 May 16;12:98.
Hoy D, Brooks P, Blyth F, Buchbinder R. The Epidemiology of low back pain. Best Pract Res Clin Rheumatol. 2010 Dec 1;24(6):769–81.

--- title: "Spinal pain in children aged 3-9 years: a descriptive study" subtitle: "Home assignment" author: "Emilie Meldgaard" date: 2025-01-30 format: html: toc: true toc-depth: 2 embed-resources: true number-sections: true number-depth: 0 code-fold: true code-summary: "Show the code" code-tools: true fontcolor: pink backgroundcolor: green fig-align: "left" execute: message: false warning: false editor: source editor_options: chunk_output_type: console ---  ```{r} #| echo: FALSE #| warning: FALSE # Loading the packages - most of the packages have also been loaded in the 01_main_home_assignment.R-script library(tidyverse) library(here) library(ggplot2) library(dplyr) library(conflicted) ``` Emilie Meldgaard^1^ ^1^ Department of Sports Science and Clinical Biomechanics, University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark ^\*^ Corresponding author E-mail: emeldgaard@health.sdu.dk # Abstract This is my first R-project. # Introduction Spinal pain often begins in childhood, with prevalence rising with age (1,2). Most research targets children aged nine and above (2,3). To understand spinal pain and its development, it is crucial to include younger children. This study aims to describe the number of spinal pain episodes and the length of the episodes as well as determine age at first onset of spinal pain. # Method Many hours have been spent trying to work out how to handle a long formatted data set in Stata. The long days are over - I have now switched to R. # Results ```{r} #| echo: FALSE #| warning: FALSE source(here("scripts", "01_main_home_assignment.R")) # This external script file results in: # * a dot plot # * a box plot # * a violin plot ``` The median age of first onset of spinal pain for boys was 5.96 years. For girls it was 6.29 years. The distribution of age at first onset of spinal pain with inter quartile range is visualized in the dot plot below. ```{r} #| echo: FALSE #| label: fig-1 #| fig-cap: Dot plot showing the first onset of spinal pain with median age and inter quartile range by gender. my_dotplot # This is a variable which contains the plot created in 01_main_home_assignment.R ``` A total of 127 children experienced spinal pain at some time during the years 2017-2020. The box plot illustrates how many episodes were reported by age group and gender. In general the boys had an earlier debut of multiple episodes of spinal pain than the girls. ```{r} #| echo: FALSE #| label: fig-2 #| fig-cap: Box plot showing the average number of spinal pain episodes stratified by age and gender with confidence intervals. my_boxplot # This is a variable which contains the plot created in 01_main_home_assignment.R ``` As the parents answered SMS text every fourth Sunday reporting spinal pain or not, the length of the episodes varied in a four-week interval. The violin plot illustrates how most children with spinal pain reported pain within the four week period. Fewer children had episodes lasting for more than four weeks, and individuals had longer lasting episodes for more than eight weeks. ```{r} #| echo: FALSE #| label: fig-3 #| fig-cap: Violin plot showing the length of episodes stratified by age. my_violinplot # This is a variable which contains the plot created in 01_main_home_assignment.R ``` # Discussion One of the strengths of this project was the wide palette of plots to try out. Moreover it was a great advantage to have the ability to render the quarto-document and then having the opportunity to make changes while inspecting it in the viewer. A limitation to the project was the great difficulties with the citation and references, and unfortunately it could not be solved. # Conclusions Future me should practice the folder organizing and learn how to do the citation right. # References 1. Jeffries LJ, Milanese SF, Grimmer-Somers KA. Epidemiology of Adolescent Spinal Pain: A Systematic Overview of the Research Literature. Spine. 2007 Nov 1;32(23):2630. 2. Kjaer P, Wedderkopp N, Korsholm L, Leboeuf-Yde C. Prevalence and tracking of back pain from childhood to adolescence. BMC Musculoskelet Disord. 2011 May 16;12:98. 3. Hoy D, Brooks P, Blyth F, Buchbinder R. The Epidemiology of low back pain. Best Pract Res Clin Rheumatol. 2010 Dec 1;24(6):769–81.