The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of pain and its association with the transportation of school supplies among university students. It was a cross-sectional study with 373 university students between February and September 2012 in which sociodemographic and academic data, as well as those regarding the transportation of school supplies and the presence of pain were collected through a semi-structured interview. Further analysis of anthropometric data was conducted and the volumes transported were weighted. Data were analyzed using the SPSS 17.0(r)software using the model of Hierarchical Binary Logistic Regression, Backward LR method, in which the power of influence of predictor variables was tested in the presence of musculoskeletal pain. Prevalence of pain of 82.8%, with overall average of 5.21 points on the Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) for pain assessment was found. Among women, the influence of the relative weight of volumes on the presence of pain was 45.1% higher than among men (PR = 0.689, CI 95% = 0.503 to 0.942) for each 1% increment. The transport time, in turn, increased by 22.9% the likelihood of occurrence of pain, every 15 minutes (PR = 1.229, CI 95% = 1.090 to 1.386). A high prevalence of pain related to the transportation of school supplies was observed, as well as the influence of predictor variables such as relative weight and transport time, especially in females.
Low Back Pain; Musculoskeletal Pain; Public Health; Weight-Bearing
