Abstract
BackgroundLow Back Pain (LBP) is a common and costly problem, with variation in prevalence. Epidemiological reports of rating of pain intensity and location within the low back area are rare. The objective is to describe LBP in a large, multi-center, occupational cohort detailing both point and 1-month period prevalence of LBP by location and intensity measures at baseline.MethodsIn this cross-sectional report from a prospective cohort study, 828 participants were workers enrolled from 30 facilities performing a variety of manual material handling tasks. All participants underwent a structured interview detailing pain rating and location. Symptoms in the lower extremities, demographic and other data were collected. Body mass indices were measured. Outcomes are pain rating (0–10) in five defined lumbar back areas (i) LBP in the past month and (ii) LBP on the day of enrollment. Pain ratings were reported on a 0–10 scale and subsequently collapsed with ratings of 1–3, 4–6 and 7–10 classified as low, medium and high respectively.Results172 (20.8%) and 364 (44.0%) of the 828 participants reported pain on the day of enrollment or within the past month, respectively. The most common area of LBP was in the immediate paraspinal area with 130 (75.6%) participants with point prevalence LBP and 278 (77.4%) with 1-month period prevalence reported having LBP in the immediate paraspinal area. Among those 364 reporting 1-month period prevalence pain, ratings varied widely with 116 (31.9%) reporting ratings classified as low, 170 (46.7%) medium and 78 (21.4%) providing high pain ratings in any location. Among the 278 reporting 1-month period prevalence pain in the immediate paraspinal area, 89 (32.0%) reported ratings classified as low, 129 (46.4%), medium and 60 (21.6%) high pain ratings.ConclusionsPain ratings varied widely, however less variability was seen in pain location, with immediate paraspinal region being the most common. Variations may suggest different etiological factors related to LBP. Aggregation of different locations of pain or different intensities of pain into one binary classification of LBP may result in loss of information which may potentially be useful in prevention or treatment of LBP.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/1471-2474-15-283) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
Highlights
Low Back Pain (LBP) is a common and costly problem, with variation in prevalence
While many randomized trials report mean pain ratings in the low back area, only two population based epidemiological articles described pain intensity in the low back area, but none could be identified that differentiated different regions of pain in the lumbar spine with stratified pain intensities [12,17]
The objectives of this report are to describe by anatomic location the: (i) point and 1-month prevalence of LBP, and (ii) intensity of LBP in a large, multi-center, multi-plant occupational cohort
Summary
Low Back Pain (LBP) is a common and costly problem, with variation in prevalence. Epidemiological reports of rating of pain intensity and location within the low back area are rare. Lifetime prevalence of low back pain (LBP) is reportedly 75-84% of the general population studied in developed countries, which includes working individuals, and includes individuals who disabled and are not employed [1,2,3,4,5,6]. When epidemiological and clinical studies do define LBP, it has been generally defined as pain between the 12th rib and the gluteal fold [2,5,8,9,11]. There is little reported regarding the pain rating or location distribution in a non-clinical population
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