C-reactive protein levels unrelated to spinal pain in kids

There appears to be no link between C-reactive protein (CRP) levels and the trajectory of spinal pain in children and adolescents, a recent study has found.

Researchers followed 1,556 participants (aged 6–11 years, 572 girls) from October 2008 to 2014. CRP levels were measured at baseline. The primary outcome was the number of weeks with nontraumatic spinal pain between November 2018 to June 2014.

Participants had an average age of 8.4 years at baseline, and 916 had high-sensitivity (hs) CRP levels not exceeding 10 mg/L, with an average measurement of 0.47 mg/L. Mean body mass index was 16.4 kg/m². Participants spent 8.1 percent of their days in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity, on average.

Five trajectory groups were determined: no pain (55.3 percent), rare (23.7 percent), rare and increasing (13.6 percent), moderate and increasing (5.9 percent), and early onset and decreasing (1.3 percent). Hs-CRP levels did not significantly differ among the five trajectories, with corresponding mean measurements of 0.52, 0.37, 0.47, 0.44, and 0.32 mg/L.

Regression modelling further confirmed that hs-CRP was unrelated to pain trajectories. Compared to no pain, the chances of rare (risk ratio [RR], 0.77, 95 percent confidence interval [CI], 0.57–1.04), rare and increasing (RR, 1.00, 95 percent CI, 0.77–1.31), moderate and increasing (RR, 0.93, 95 percent CI, 0.59–1.48), and early onset and decreasing (RR, 0.69, 95 percent CI, 0.19–2.47) were not significantly influenced by hs-CRP concentrations.

“Future studies should consider applying causal inference methods if they have the required data available and include a more diverse set of pain-related outcomes to further define if there are potential effects of CRP on spinal pain,” the researchers said.