Sellschop I.1, Myezwa H.2, Mduzi W.2, Musenge E.3
1University of the Witwatersrand, Physiotherapy, Gauteng, South Africa, 2University of the Witwatersrand, Physiotherapy, Johannesburg, South Africa, 3University of the Witwatersrand, Statistics, Johannesburg, South Africa
Background: Pain catastrophising has emerged as a potent predictor of pain-related outcomes, in both pain-free and chronic pain patients. A learner with high catastrophising levels may be at risk for developing pain and this factor needs to be identified prior to the design and implementation of an intervention programme.
Purpose: The purpose of this research was to establish the prevalence of pain catastrophising amongst learners, and the outcome of an ergonomics intervention on their pain catatsrophising levels.
Methods: This study comprised a cross-sectional study to determine the prevalence of pain catastrophising in grade eight learners and a randomised control trial whereby grade eight learners from two schools were used as either an intervention(n=61) or control group (n=66).
Results: The data were collected and analysed using the computer programme SPSS 20.00 (MS windows). Descriptive statistics were used to establish the prevalence of pain catastrophising amongst the learners.Pain catastrophising scores for the total sample of learners (Mean=25.12, SD = 8.1) were measured using the PCS-C survey. A large portion of learners (73.2%) scored below the clinically significant 75th percentile (a score >30) and 26.8% scored above a score of 30, indicating that this percentage of learners had clinically significant catastrophising scores.
The average PCS score of both the control and intervention groups decreased over a period of six months and within each group there was a significant decrease in the total PCS score from baseline over a period of six months (p 0.00). To determine if the intervention programme had an effect on pain catastrophising in learners, pain catastrophising for the two groups was tested using repeated measures of analysis of variance (ANOVA) to show between group changes. The findings showed that over a period of time, between baseline and three months, there was a significant change in pain catastrophising between the control group and intervention group (p 0.001), however, there was no significant change in pain catastrophising between the two groups at six months (p 0.3).
Conclusion(s): Since studies have shown that assessing for pain catastrophising in children is important, and that it is associated with heightened pain intensity and negative pain outcomes as well as with lower pain thresholds and higher levels of emotional distress, the findings from this current study are valuable when assessing the effects of a computer-related intervention programme (Vervoort et al., 2008; Crombez et al., 2003; Kashikar-Zuck et al., 2001) as it may impact on the outcome of the intervention programme.
Implications: The results from this study highlight the need for educating all stakeholders in schools on ergonomic principles as well as the need for further longitudinal-ergonomic research in schools.
Funding acknowledgements: University of the Witwatersrand for funding with transport during the course of the gathering research data in the schools.
Topic: Occupational health & ergonomics
Ethics approval: Ethical approval was given by the Human rights research council at the University of the Witwatersrand.
All authors, affiliations and abstracts have been published as submitted.
