Abstract
Background: Facet joint osteoarthritis (FJO) is an important element of lumbosacral degenerative disease. However, its association with other possible risk factors is still controversial. This study was conducted to investigate the association of FJO with risk factors and with presence of lumbar intervertebral disc degeneration (IVDD).
 Patient and method: Lumbosacral magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) examinations of 100 patients (36 male and 64 female) with low back pain (LBP) were reviewed in this cross-sectional retrospective study for the presence of FJO. The overall prevalence of FJO as well as the number of levels affected was correlated with the age, gender, body weight, height, BMI, female parity. FJO was also correlated with presence of corresponding IVDD.
 Results: Overall prevalence of FJO was 23%. The prevalence of FJO was significantly associated with advancing age (p=0.018). Females were more affected than males but without statistical significance (p value = 0.79). Similarly, FJO were more frequent in women with advanced multiparity but the association was statistically not significant (p value 0.1) there was statistically significant association between BMI and number of levels affected by FJO (p value 0.037). IVDD was significantly associated with higher prevalence of FJO especially at L3/4 and L4/5 levels (p values P<0.0001 and 0.04 respectively).
 Conclusion: Age was the single most important factor significantly associated with both overall higher prevalence of FJO and higher number of involved levels. BMI was statistically associated with increasing number of level affected. IVDD was significantly associated with presence of FJO at L3/4 & L4/5 levels.
Highlights
Low back pain (LBP) is considered as one of the commonest complains encountered in the primary care and majority of people will have some sort of LBP during their lives resulting in significant morbidity, disability and reduced productivity [1,2].LBP have different causes, with lumbosacral spinal degenerative disease being amongst the common ones which is manifested in form of intervertebral disc degeneration (IVDD), ligamnetum flavum (LF) thickening and facet joint osteoarthritis (FJO) in variable degrees of severity and combinations
FJO were more frequent in women with advanced multiparity but the association was statistically not significant (p value 0.1) there was statistically significant association between body mass index (BMI) and number of levels affected by FJO (p value 0.037)
BMI was statistically associated with increasing number of level affected
Summary
The prevalence of FJO was significantly associated with advancing age (p=0.018). Females were more affected than males but without statistical significance (p value = 0.79). FJO were more frequent in women with advanced multiparity but the association was statistically not significant (p value 0.1) there was statistically significant association between BMI and number of levels affected by FJO (p value 0.037). IVDD was significantly associated with higher prevalence of FJO especially at L3/4 and L4/5 levels (p values P
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