Differences in the Incidence of Symptomatic Cervical and Lumbar Disc Herniation According to Age, Sex and National Health Insurance Eligibility: A Pilot Study on the Disease's Association with Work.

Young-Ki Kim,Ilho Lee,Se-Yeong Kim,Dongmug Kang

doi:10.3390/ijerph15102094

Abstract

The aim of this research was to identify the differences in the incidence of symptomatic cervical and lumbar disc herniation according to age, sex, and national health insurance eligibility. We evaluated the hospital documents of patients who received medical treatment for symptomatic cervical and lumbar disc herniation between 2004 and 2010 and excluded those who claimed to have expenses at oriental medical clinics or pharmacies. Furthermore, any duplicate documents from the labor force population aged 20–69 years were excluded from the analysis. The results showed that the number of individuals diagnosed with symptomatic cervical and lumbar disc herniation increased with age, and the incidence of these diseases was higher in women than in men. Additionally, the incidence differed depending on the subject’s qualification for health insurance. The incidence of lumbar disc herniation showed differences depending on the degree of the lumbar burden. The present study findings may help determine whether lumbar disc herniation is associated with tasks performed at the patient’s workplace. Further research is needed to classify the risk of lumbar disk herniation in the workplace into detailed categories such as types of business, types of occupation, and lumbar compression force.

Highlights

Disc herniation (DH) is the displacement of disc material beyond the intervertebral disc space [1]
Number of Patients with Lumbar disc herniation (LDH) According to Gender, Age, and Health Insurance Eligibility
The number of patients with LDH increased with age for both men and women, similar to the

Summary

Introduction

Disc herniation (DH) is the displacement of disc material (nucleus pulposus or annulus fibrosis) beyond the intervertebral disc space [1]. Lumbar disc herniation (LDH) is the major cause of morbidity and its treatment is very expensive [2]. In South Korea, DH greatly affects a worker’s compensation. It has been considered a controversial disease for medical compensation approval because it is difficult to medically identify whether DH is caused by occupational factors or factors naturally developed by individuals [3]. There is no basic epidemiological information for determining whether DH is associated with occupational factors, some epidemiological studies have revealed the incidence of DH. According to Jordon, the prevalence of LDH in Finland and Italy is 1–3%, which is higher for individuals aged 30–59 years, with men having a two times higher incidence than women [1]. Deyo et al assumed that the incidence of LDH in America would reach about 1–2% [2]

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