Nonspesific lowback pain in professional football players and the causes

Purpose: The aim of this study is to determine the prevalence and the causes of nonspesific low back pain in professional football players.Method: 121 players with the age median of 23.97±2.75 years, who play in Turkish Professional Football League teams, were included in the study. Demographic variables and nonspesific low back pain of the players in last one year were recorded. From probable causes; injury background, parameters on football game (players position, training time, training frequency), parameters on players football past (starting age to play football, number of years as an amateur and a professional player) and parameters on the previous season (number of games played as a starting eleven member in the previous season, number of games played during the season) were questioned. From causes that depend on the player, lumbal extensors and abdominal muscle strenght, lumbal and lower extremity flexibility and hamsting muscle shortness were measured. The data were analysed using Chi-Square Test.Results: 38 of 121 professional players that were involved in our study had defined low back pain in last one year and the prevelance of nonspesific low back pain in Professional football players was %31.4. Demographic attributes such as height and body mass index were observed noneffective on nonspesific low back pain creation (p>0.05). Similarly, parameters on football, on players football past and on the previous season did not have a statistically meaningful relationship with nonspesific low back pain observation (p>0.05). From causes that depend on the player, while hamstring muscle shortness was determined to be an effective cause on observation of nonspesific low back pain (p<0.05), it was discovered that muscle strenght and lumbal lower extremity elasticity did not have statistically meaningful effect (p>0.05).Conclusion: As a result of the study, it was found that the prevelance of nonspesific low back pain on Professional football players is %31.4 and it was concluded hamstring muscle shortness can be an effective cause on nonspesific ow back pain development. The players performance and team success can be effected negatively as a result of a high ratio on nonspesific low back pain observation. Therefore, new studies on the subject are required in which other causes of nonspesific low back pain on football players are investigated and protective physiotherapy methods are developed.Keywords: Non-specific Low-back Pain, Professional Football Player, Causes