Abstract:
This cross-sectional descriptive study the prevalence and factors of back pain in Thai amateur golfers. There are 904 participants completed the questionnaires; 88.8% are male and 11.2% are female with average age of 41.81+-11.93 years. Average BMI is 23.66+-2.99 kg/m[square] ; years of golf playing are 6.97+-7.40 years. Most of them have handicap 24; 44.9% have experienced back pain in their early learning period. 628 of the participants have been measured their back muscle strength and flexibility; the result of back muscle strength is 77.77+-30.38 kg and back muscle flexibility is 1.94+-9.99 cm. From this study found that the six months prevalence of back pain was 40%, 86.19% of them assumed that their back pain were from playing golf. Percentage of participants who suffered from back pain when answering the questionnaires were 11.2%, 86.14% of them assumed that the back pain was from playing golf. The phase of swing which mostly caused back pain was follow-through gesture (52.6%). The reasons which caused back pain after playing golf were poor swing mechanics, lack or inadequate warm-up, swing too hard and excessive playing or practicing. Concerning factors for back pain, in this study found that personal factors may also contribute to the cause of back pain such as height, gender, exercise routines, having history of trunk or leg injury. Golf-related factors such as the duration of warm-up and cool-down time also contributed to the cause of back pain. Furthermore, person with previous history of back pain showed strong relationship towards recurring back pain (OR = 20.292, 95%Cl = 14.095-29.215). Nonetheless, there is no correlation between back muscle strength, back muscle flexibility, and back pain.