Title: Evaluation of risk causing factors for the incidence of neck and shoulder pain in adolescents using fuzzy analytic hierarchy process

Authors: T. Padma; S.P. Shantharajah

Addresses: Department of Computer Applications, Sona College of Technology, Salem 636005, Tamilnadu, India ' School of Information Technology and Engineering, Vellore Institute of Technology, Vellore 632014, Tamilnadu, India

Abstract: The incidence of neck and shoulder pain is recurrent in adolescents, constituting a large socioeconomic challenge and is responsible for substantial personal and social impacts; requiring intensive research to identify potential causes and their precedence in pain occurrence. This study's intent is to explore the prevalence of neck and shoulder pain among adolescents and to examine the risk factors associated with the hazard of the pain. Through knowledge engineering process, risk factors identified are physical-, psychological-, psychosocial-, behavioural-, emotional- and sedentary-related. A fuzzy analytic hierarchy process method is applied to prioritise the risk factors and determines its precedence in pain incidence among the adolescents, categorised based on their ages as early, middle and late adolescence group (between 10-17, 18-21 and 22-24 respectively). The results indicate that the middle adolescence category have a significantly greater chance for pain occurrence. The outcomes will support in decision making and planning for the youth's welfare.

Keywords: adolescent health; neck and shoulder pain; knowledge engineering; domain experts; fuzzy analytic hierarchy process.

DOI: 10.1504/IJIDS.2021.118053

International Journal of Information and Decision Sciences, 2021 Vol.13 No.3, pp.254 - 274

Received: 29 Jan 2019
Accepted: 21 Sep 2019
Published online: 11 Oct 2021 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article