Prevalence of low back pain in children and adolescents: a meta-analysis

BMC Pediatrics

Table 1 Mean prevalences, 95% confidence intervals, and heterogeneity statistics

Type of prevalence	k	N	Min.	Max.	p ₊	95%	C. I.	Q	df	I ²
						p _l	p _u
Point prevalence	10	49,124	0.032	0.350	0.120	0.090	0.159	546.87*	9	98.3
Period prevalence:
1 week	6	9,812	0.097	0.350	0.177	0.124	0.247	156.56*	5	96.8
2 weeks	1	1,193	0.246	0.246	0.246	0.222	0.271	--	--	--
1 month	14	23,191	0.025	0.398	0.183	0.128	0.255	1618.85*	13	99.2
3 months	2	4,126	0.224	0.513	0.355	0.134	0.662	187.49*	1	99.5
6 months	7	25,037	0.008	0.420	0.177	0.088	0.324	2197.00*	6	99.7
12 months	13	19,673	0.174	0.603	0.336	0.269	0.410	997.00*	12	98.8
Lifetime prevalence	30	61,732	0.086	0.648	0.399	0.342	0.459	4957.79*	29	99.4

* p < .001. k: number of studies. N: total sample size. Min. and Max.: minimum and maximum prevalence rates. p ₊: mean prevalence. p _l and p _u: lower and upper confidence limits of the 95% confidence interval around the mean prevalence. Q: heterogeneity statistic to test the homogeneity hypothesis of the prevalence rates. df: degrees of freedom of the Q statistic. I ²: heterogeneity index.

ISSN: 1471-2431