Purpose: The aim of the study was to investigate the occurrence of musculoskeletal pain and sport injuries and also to find their risk factors among students of physical education of the University of Szczecin.
Material and methods: The study was conducted in students of physical education of the University of Szczecin and it was based upon a questionnaire. Of all 525 students, 503 (95.8%) responded the questionnaire, 218 women (43.3%), 285 men (56.7%). The questionnaire involved questions on the musculoskeletal complaints, participation in sports and its character, sport injuries with their localization and associated sport discipline, anthropometric, socio-economic and life style data, psychosocial profile. The univariate stepwise regression analysis, multivariate stepwise regression analysis, U Mann-Whitney test and chi2 test were used for statistical evaluation of the data. The odds ratio was calculated for chosen variables with 95% confidence interval.
Results: Almost half of the men and women reported the presence ofmusculoskeletal pain in the previous year. Both women and men claimed the most frequently knee pain, shoulder and ankle pain. Altogether 236 students reported sport injuries, 92 (42.4%) women and 144 (50.5%) men. The students reported the total number of 1065 injuries. Men claimed significantly more injuries then women. The most important risk factors for musculoskeletal pain were sport injuries. The psychosocial factors significantly influenced the occurrence of pain. Participation in certain sports was the main risk factor of injuries in students. Also participation in competitive sport was the risk factor for injuries of knee, ankle, feet and shoulder joints.
Conclusions: 1. Musculoskeletal pain is common in the studied population. 2. Sport injuries are the most important risk factor of musculoskeletal pain in this group. Participation in certain sport disciplines and psychosocial factors are also risk factors ofmusculoskeletal pain. 3. Sport injuries were reported by nearly half of the students, the most common localization of injuries were knee and ankle joints. 4. There are specific injuries related in this group to participation in some sports, and also to participation in competitive sports.