Objective

To analyse the characteristic of back pain in schooled adolescents in the municipality of Cotonou.

Material/patients and methods

This is a prospective descriptive and analytic study of 334 schooled adolescents in the municipality of Cotonou from March 30 to June 30, 2015.

Results

The mean age of the adolescents was 16.96 ± 0.18 years with a female predominance of 55.98% (sex ratio = 0.71). Back pain was founded in 42.51% of respondents. Several forms of back pains were mentioned including: neck pain (40.14%), neck-back pain (5.63%), back pain (34.51%) and low-back pain (19.72%). It was majority chronic pain (52.82%). Back pain has been associated with the age ( P < 0.001), grade level ( P < 0.001), the bag weight ( P = 0.002), often-adopted position ( P = 0.01) and mobility of lumbar spine ( P = 0.03).

Discussion – conclusion

Our results suggest that back pain is very common among schooled adolescents. This is a health problem that must involve important preventive means especially the hygiene rules of the back precociously at school.