ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Neurol.
Sec. Headache and Neurogenic Pain
Global, regional and national burden of neck pain in children and adolescents: GBD 2021 systematic analysis
Provisionally accepted
- 1Department of Orthopedics Surgery, Tianjin Medical University General Hospital, Tianjin, China
- 2Tianjin Medical University General Hospital, Tianjin Key Laboratory of Spine and Spinal Cord,, Tianjin, China
- 3Tianjin Medical University, Tianjin, China
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Background: Neck pain (NP) has emerged as a significant health concern among children and adolescents, with potential lifelong consequences. This study aimed to comprehensively assess the global, regional, and national burden of NP among this population using data from the 2021 study. Methods: Publicly available modeled data and methods from the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) study 2021 were used to systematically analyze and evaluate the global burden of NP among children and adolescents. Primary outcomes were NP related age-standardized prevalence, incidence, years lived with disability (YLDs), and average annual percentage change (AAPC). Results: Between 1990 and 2021, the global prevalence of NP among children and adolescents increased from 8.49 million to 10.32 million cases, though age-standardized rates remained relatively stable (AAPC 0.01%). The global incidence of NP among children and adolescents increased from 3.17 million cases in 1990 to 3.82 million in 2021, while the age-standardized incidence rate showed a minimal decrease (AAPC -0.02%). The burden of NP in terms of YLDs increased from 0.89 million in 1990 to 1.08 million in 2021, although the age-standardized YLD rate remained stable (AAPC 0%). A pronounced age gradient was observed, with rates in 2021 peaking in the 15-19 years group (1,012.03 per 100,000) compared to the 5-9 years group (97.44 per 100,000),
Keywords: Neck Pain, Children, adolescents, Global burden of disease, Musculoskeletal disorders
Received: 24 Jun 2025; Accepted: 11 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Sun, Zhang, Yang, Zhou, Wang, Xue and Lin. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Yuan Xue, sunchao0330@hotmail.com
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