Examining the Peer-Reviewed Published Literature Regarding Low Back Pain in Rowing: A Scoping Review.
Veronica Athy, Sylvia Hach, Helen Anderson and 1 others
PMID 36793564WHAT IT FOUND
The only two consistent risk factors for low back pain in rowers were previous back pain and prolonged ergometer use.
Most evidence relies on retrospective surveys with no standard definition of back pain, so specific training limits or screening tools cannot be recommended.
Key findings
01Prolonged ergometer use and a history of back pain were the only risk factors agreed upon across the literature.
02The search identified 78 studies, but only 21% defined low back pain, and the literature lacked randomized controlled trials and prospective designs.
03Pre-participation screening tools showed no utility in predicting injury risk, and sex differences in pain incidence were inconclusive.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTsWhat it means for OTsWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The literature is heavily heterogeneous, with no standard definition of low back pain used across studies. Most evidence comes from retrospective questionnaires, which are prone to recall bias and survivor bias. There is a severe lack of high-quality evidence, with only one randomized controlled trial included. Injury underreporting due to athlete culture likely affects the accuracy of prevalence and risk factor data. The review did not appraise the quality of all included studies, only a subset of 12.
Declared interests
No specific funding sources or author conflicts of interest were declared in the provided text.
The easy way to misread this
Do not interpret the 6% to 66% prevalence range or the 30-minute ergometer limit as precise clinical thresholds. These figures come from heterogeneous studies with varying definitions and retrospective designs, so they indicate a general risk trend rather than a specific cutoff for injury.