ABSTRACT

Introduction: An increasing number of young people complains about neck pain, and musculoskeletal pain has been identified as most common health problem in musicians. Considering high school is a place where young musicians prepare for their professional work it is useful to examine how common is neck pain in adolescent musicians.

Aim: To determine the frequency of neck pain in secondary music school students and examine differences within a group of secondary music school students considering the instrument they play. Beside that, the aim is to explore whether there are differences in prevalence and intensity of neck pain in high school music stuedents with regard to gender and the time students spend playing their instrument.

Materials and methods: 50 high school students participated in the study. The experimental group consists of high school music students ( N=23), and the control group consists of high school students (N=27). The voice of a solo singer is also considered an instrument. A survey on the problem of neck pain was used.

Results: Research results suggest that the prevalence and intensity of pain are higher in musicians than in other adolescents. Pain intensity is higher in female adolescent musicians than male adolescent musicians and it increases with playing time. The strongest pain is felt by pianists, and behind them are guitarists, violinists and solo singers.

Conclusion: Given the presence of neck pain in adolescent musicians, futher research is needed but with a larger sample to make the results more relevant.

Key words: neck pain, adolescents, musicians, prevalence, intensity