@article {Wall1299, author = {Julia Wall and William P Meehan III and Katharina Trompeter and Conor Gissane and David Mockler and Nicol van Dyk and Fiona Wilson}, title = {Incidence, prevalence and risk factors for low back pain in adolescent athletes: a systematic review and meta-analysis}, volume = {56}, number = {22}, pages = {1299--1306}, year = {2022}, doi = {10.1136/bjsports-2021-104749}, publisher = {British Association of Sport and Excercise Medicine}, abstract = {Objective To investigate the incidence, prevalence, risk factors and morphological presentations of low back pain (LBP) in adolescent athletes.Design Systematic review with meta-analysis.Data sources Medline, Embase, CINAHL via EBSCO, Web of Science, Scopus.Eligibility criteria for selecting studies Studies evaluating the incidence and/or prevalence of LBP in adolescent athletes across all sports.Results There were 80 studies included. The pooled incidence estimate of LBP in adolescent athletes was 11\% (95\% CI 8\% to 13\%, I2=0\%) for 2 years, 36.0\% (95\% CI 4\% to 68\%, I2=99.3\%) for 12 months and 14\% (95\% CI 7\% to 22\%, I2=76\%) for 6 months incidence estimates. The pooled prevalence estimate of LBP in adolescent athletes was 42\% (95\% CI 29\% to 55\%, I2=96.6\%) for last 12 months, 46\% (95\% CI 41.0\% to 52\%, I2=56\%) for last 3 months and 16\% (95\% CI 9\% to 23\%, I2=98.3\%) for point prevalence. Potential risk factors were sport participation, sport volume/intensity, concurrent lower extremity pain, overweight/high body mass index, older adolescent age, female sex and family history of LBP. The most common morphology reported was spondylolysis. Methodological quality was deemed high in 73\% of cross-sectional studies and in 30\% of cohort studies. Common reasons for downgrading at quality assessment were use of non-validated survey instruments and imprecision or absence of LBP definition.Summary/conclusion LBP is common among adolescent athletes, although incidence and prevalence vary considerably due to differences in study methodology, definitions of LBP and data collection.PROSPERO registration number CRD42020157206.}, issn = {0306-3674}, URL = {https://bjsm.bmj.com/content/56/22/1299}, eprint = {https://bjsm.bmj.com/content/56/22/1299.full.pdf}, journal = {British Journal of Sports Medicine} }