Relationship between body awareness level and musculoskeletal pain complaints, physical activity level and emotional status in healthy people

Introductıon/Aim Defining the physical, psycho-social effects of body awareness may help to explain the functional effects. It was aimed to examine the relationship between the body awareness level and musculoskeletal pain complaints, physical activity level, and emotional state in healthy people. Materials and methods A total of 289 healthy individuals between the ages of 18 and 25 were included in the study. Body awareness level was using Body Awareness Questionnaire (BAQ), musculoskeletal pain complaint using The Nordic Musculoskeletal Questionnaire (NMQ), physical activity levels using International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ-short form) and emotional status using Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) were assessed. Results The mean age of the participants was 19.50 ± 1.55 years. The mean pain intensity was 2.48 ± 1.99. The BAQ score average was 91.87 ± 15.55. Thirty percent of the participants had a mild level and 14.9% had a moderate level of depression risk. While there was a weak positive relationship between the Disease Startup sub-dimension of BAQ and the moderate-level IPAQ score ( r = 0.135, p = 0.022). Also there was a weak negative relationship between Disease Startup sub-dimension and the level of depression risk. A weak positive relationship was found between the changes in the body process and attention to subjects sub-dimension and the level of depression risk ( r = 0.127, p = 0.030). There was a positive correlation between level of depression risk and pain intensity ( r = 0.237, p = 0.000). Body awareness levels of individuals who had back pain in the last 1 month were higher than those who did not experience pain ( p = 0.029). Conclusion The results of the study showed that physical activity positively affected body awareness level. The body awareness level was directly related to the pain associated with the musculoskeletal system and emotional state. There is a need more studies examining the relationship between body awareness and pain, physical activity and emotional status with subdimensions of the BAQ.