Abstract
Back pain is one of the most common health problems which plays a leading role in many statistics of the German health care system. In this paper, a hierarchical model for grading of back pain is proposed and applied to data from a population-based survey.
In a mail survey of 3 109 German residents of Lübeck (age 25-74 years, resonse rate 81%), we found a point prevalence of back pain of 39 % and a 12-month prevalence of 75%. Women were slightly more often affected by back pain, for the point prevalence, a reversed u-shaped effect of age was observed. Using pain intensity and functional limitation as grading criteria, approx. half of the back pain prevalence was assigned to the class of less severe cases. The proportion of moderate or severe cases increased almost monotonously with age.
Our results indicate that even simple grading criteria may be used to obtain more informative epidemiologic findings. Depending on the specific application and research question it may be useful to construct an index which includes additional variables of the grading model.
In a mail survey of 3 109 German residents of Lübeck (age 25-74 years, resonse rate 81%), we found a point prevalence of back pain of 39 % and a 12-month prevalence of 75%. Women were slightly more often affected by back pain, for the point prevalence, a reversed u-shaped effect of age was observed. Using pain intensity and functional limitation as grading criteria, approx. half of the back pain prevalence was assigned to the class of less severe cases. The proportion of moderate or severe cases increased almost monotonously with age.
Our results indicate that even simple grading criteria may be used to obtain more informative epidemiologic findings. Depending on the specific application and research question it may be useful to construct an index which includes additional variables of the grading model.
Translated title of the contribution | Prevalence and Severity of Back Pain in Lübeck |
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Original language | German |
Journal | Aktuelle Rheumatologie |
Volume | 20 |
Issue number | 3 |
Pages (from-to) | 99-104 |
Number of pages | 6 |
ISSN | 0341-051X |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 05.1995 |