Patterns of musculoskeletal pain in the population: A latent class analysis using a nationally representative interviewer-based survey of 4817 Danes

Multivariable modeling of factors associated with spinal pain in young adolescence

PURPOSE

To investigate the factors related to the 1-month period prevalence of low back pain (LBP), neck pain (NP) and thoracic spine pain (TSP) in young adolescents, thereby considering potential correlates from the physical, sociodemographic, lifestyle, psychosocial and comorbid pain domains.

METHODS

In this cross-sectional baseline study, 69 factors potentially associated with spinal pain were assessed among 842 healthy adolescents before pubertal peak growth. With consideration for possible sex differences in associations, multivariable analysis was used to simultaneously evaluate contributions of all variables collected in the five domains.

RESULTS

A significantly higher odds of LBP was shown for having high levels of psychosomatic complaints (odds ratio: 4.4; 95 % confidence interval: 1.6-11.9), a high lumbar lordotic apex, retroversed pelvis, introverted personality, and high levels of negative over positive affect. Associations with a higher prevalence and odds of NP were found for psychosomatic complaints (7.8; 2.5-23.9), TSP in the last month (4.9; 2.2-10.8), backward trunk lean, high levels of negative over positive affect and depressed mood. Having experienced LBP (2.7; 1.3-5.7) or NP (5.5; 2.6-11.8) in the preceding month was associated with a higher odds of TSP, as were low self-esteem, excessive physical activity, sedentarism and not achieving the Fit-norm.

CONCLUSIONS

Psychosomatic symptoms and pain comorbidities had the strongest association with 1-month period prevalence of spinal pain in young adolescents, followed by factors from the physical and psychosocial domains. The role that "physical factors" play in non-adult spinal pain may have been underestimated by previous studies.

Increased low back pain prevalence in females than in males after menopause age: evidences based on synthetic literature review

Female sex hormones play an important role in the etiology and pathophysiology of a variety of musculoskeletal degenerative diseases. Postmenopausal women show accelerated disc degeneration due to relative estrogen deficiency. This literature review aims to validate or falsify this hypothesis, i.e., while overall females have higher prevalence of low back pain (LBP) across all age groups, this male vs. female difference in LBP prevalence further increases after female menopause age. The literature search was performed on PubMed on January 2, 2016. The search word combination was (low back pain) AND prevalence AND [(males OR men) AND (females OR women)]. The following criteria were taken to include the papers for synthetic analysis: (I) only English primary literatures on nonspecific pain; (II) only prospective studies on general population, but not population with occupational LBP causes, of both males and female subjects studied using the same LBP criterion, ages-specific information available, and males and female subjects were age-matched; (III) studies without major quality flaws. In total 98 studies with 772,927 subjects were analyzed. According to the information in the literature, participant subjects were divided into four age groups: (I) school age children group: 6-19 years; (II) young and middle aged group: 20-50 years; (III) mixed age group: data from studies did not differentiate age groups; (IV) elderly group: ≥50 years old. When individual studies were not weighted by participant number and each individual study is represented as one entry regardless of their sample size, the median LBP prevalence ratio of female vs. males was 1.310, 1.140, 1.220, and 1.270 respectively for the four age groups. When individual studies were weighted by participant number, the LBP prevalence ratio of female vs. males was 1.360, 1.127, 1.185, and 1.280 respectively for the four groups. The higher LBP prevalence in school age girls than in school age boys is likely due to psychological factors, female hormone fluctuation, and menstruation. Compared with young and middle aged subjects, a further increased LBP prevalence in females than in males was noted after menopause age.

Classification of neck/shoulder pain in epidemiological research: a comparison of personal and occupational characteristics, disability, and prognosis among 12,195 workers from 18 countries

To inform case definition for neck/shoulder pain in epidemiological research, we compared levels of disability, patterns of association, and prognosis for pain that was limited to the neck or shoulders (LNSP) and more generalised musculoskeletal pain that involved the neck or shoulder(s) (GPNS). Baseline data on musculoskeletal pain, disability, and potential correlates were collected by questionnaire from 12,195 workers in 47 occupational groups (mostly office workers, nurses, and manual workers) in 18 countries (response rate = 70%). Continuing pain after a mean interval of 14 months was ascertained through a follow-up questionnaire in 9150 workers from 45 occupational groups. Associations with personal and occupational factors were assessed by Poisson regression and summarised by prevalence rate ratios (PRRs). The 1-month prevalence of GPNS at baseline was much greater than that of LNSP (35.1% vs 5.6%), and it tended to be more troublesome and disabling. Unlike LNSP, the prevalence of GPNS increased with age. Moreover, it showed significantly stronger associations with somatising tendency (PRR 1.6 vs 1.3) and poor mental health (PRR 1.3 vs 1.1); greater variation between the occupational groups studied (prevalence ranging from 0% to 67.6%) that correlated poorly with the variation in LNSP; and was more persistent at follow-up (72.1% vs 61.7%). Our findings highlight important epidemiological distinctions between subcategories of neck/shoulder pain. In future epidemiological research that bases case definitions on symptoms, it would be useful to distinguish pain that is localised to the neck or shoulder from more generalised pain that happens to involve the neck/shoulder region.

Using existing questionnaires in latent class analysis: should we use summary scores or single items as input? A methodological study using a cohort of patients with low back pain

Background

Latent class analysis (LCA) is increasingly being used in health research, but optimal approaches to handling complex clinical data are unclear. One issue is that commonly used questionnaires are multidimensional, but expressed as summary scores. Using the example of low back pain (LBP), the aim of this study was to explore and descriptively compare the application of LCA when using questionnaire summary scores and when using single items to subgrouping of patients based on multidimensional data.

Materials and methods

Baseline data from 928 LBP patients in an observational study were classified into four health domains (psychology, pain, activity, and participation) using the World Health Organization’s International Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health framework. LCA was performed within each health domain using the strategies of summary-score and single-item analyses. The resulting subgroups were descriptively compared using statistical measures and clinical interpretability.

Results

For each health domain, the preferred model solution ranged from five to seven subgroups for the summary-score strategy and seven to eight subgroups for the single-item strategy. There was considerable overlap between the results of the two strategies, indicating that they were reflecting the same underlying data structure. However, in three of the four health domains, the single-item strategy resulted in a more nuanced description, in terms of more subgroups and more distinct clinical characteristics.

Conclusion

In these data, application of both the summary-score strategy and the single-item strategy in the LCA subgrouping resulted in clinically interpretable subgroups, but the single-item strategy generally revealed more distinguishing characteristics. These results 1) warrant further analyses in other data sets to determine the consistency of this finding, and 2) warrant investigation in longitudinal data to test whether the finer detail provided by the single-item strategy results in improved prediction of outcomes and treatment response.

Clustering of pain and its associations with health in people aged 50 years and older: cross-sectional results from the North Staffordshire Osteoarthritis Project

OBJECTIVE

Most pain in patients aged ≥50 years affects multiple sites and yet the predominant mode of presentation is single-site syndromes. The aim of this study was to investigate if pain sites form clusters in this population and if any such clusters are associated with health factors other than pain.

SETTING

Six general practices in North Staffordshire, UK.

DESIGN

Cross-sectional, postal questionnaire, study.

PARTICIPANTS

Community-dwelling adults aged ≥50 years registered at the general practices.

MAIN OUTCOMES MEASURES

Number of pain sites was measured by asking participants to shade sites of pain lasting ≥1 day in the past 4 weeks on a blank body manikin. Health factors measured included anxiety and depression (Hospital and Anxiety Depression Scale), cognitive complaint (Sickness Impact Profile) and sleep. Pain site clustering was investigated using latent class analysis. Association of clusters with health factors, adjusted for age, sex, body mass index and morbidities, was analysed using multinomial regression models.

RESULTS

13 986 participants (adjusted response 70.6%) completed a questionnaire, of whom 12 408 provided complete pain data. Four clusters of participants were identified: (1) low number of pain sites (36.6%), (2) medium number of sites with no back pain (31.5%), (3) medium number of sites with back pain (17.9%) and (4) high number of sites (14.1%). Compared to Cluster 1, other clusters were associated with poor health. The strongest associations (relative risk ratios, 95% CI) were with Cluster 4: depression (per unit change in score) 1.11 (1.08 to 1.14); cognitive complaint 2.60 (2.09 to 3.24); non-restorative sleep 4.60 (3.50 to 6.05).

CONCLUSIONS

These results indicate that in a general population aged ≥50 years, pain forms four clusters shaped by two dimensions-number of pain sites (low, medium, high) and, within the medium cluster, the absence or presence of back pain. The usefulness of primary care treatment approaches based on this simple classification should be investigated.

Psychosocial Risk Factors, Interventions, and Comorbidity in Patients with Non-Specific Low Back Pain in Primary Care: Need for Comprehensive and Patient-Centered Care

Non-specific low back pain (LBP) affects many people and has major socio-economic consequences. Traditional therapeutic strategies, mainly focused on biomechanical factors, have had moderate and short-term impact. Certain psychosocial factors have been linked to poor prognosis of LBP and they are increasingly considered as promising targets for management of LBP. Primary health care providers (HCPs) are involved in most of the management of people with LBP and they are skilled in providing comprehensive care, including consideration of psychosocial dimensions. This review aims to discuss three pieces of recent research focusing on psychosocial issues in LBP patients in primary care. In the first systematic review, the patients' or HCPs' overall judgment about the likely evolution of LBP was the factor most strongly linked to poor outcome, with predictive validity similar to that of multidimensional scales. This result may be explained by the implicit aggregation of many prognostic factors underlying this judgment and suggests the relevance of considering the patients from biopsychosocial and longitudinal points of view. The second review showed that most of the interventions targeting psychosocial factors in LBP in primary care have to date focused on the cognitive-behavioral factors, resulting in little impact. It is unlikely that any intervention focusing on a single factor would ever fit the needs of most patients; interventions targeting determinants from several fields (mainly psychosocial, biomechanical, and occupational) may be more relevant. Should multiple stakeholders be involved in such interventions, enhanced interprofessional collaboration would be critical to ensure the delivery of coordinated care. Finally, in the third study, the prevalence of psychosocial comorbidity in chronic LBP patients was not found to be significantly higher than in other patients consulting in primary care. Rather than specifically screening for psychosocial conditions, this suggests taking into account any potential comorbidity in patients with chronic LBP, as in other patients. All these results support the adoption of a more comprehensive and patient-centered approach when dealing with patients with LBP in primary care. As this condition is illustrative of many situations encountered in primary care, the strategies proposed here may benefit most patients consulting in this setting.

A population-based, incidence cohort study of mid-back pain after traffic collisions: Factors associated with global recovery

Background

Traffic collisions often result in a wide range of symptoms included in the umbrella term whiplash‐associated disorders. Mid‐back pain (MBP) is one of these symptoms. The incidence and prognosis of different traffic injuries and their related conditions (e.g. neck pain, low back pain, depression or others) has been investigated previously; however, knowledge about traffic collision‐related MBP is lacking. The study objectives were to describe the incidence, course of recovery and prognosis of MBP after traffic collisions, in terms of global self‐reported recovery.

Methods

Longitudinal data from a population‐based inception cohort of all traffic injuries occurring in Saskatchewan, Canada, during a 2‐year period were used. Annual overall and age‐sex‐specific incidence rates were calculated, the course of recovery was described using the Kaplan–Meier technique, and associations between participant characteristics and time‐to‐self‐reported recovery were explored in 3496 MBP cases using Cox proportional hazards models.

Results

The yearly incidence rate was 236 per 100,000 population during the study period, and was highest in women and in young persons. The median time‐to‐first reported recovery was 101 days (95% CI: 99–104) and about 23% were still not recovered after 1 year. Participant's expectation for recovery, general health, extent of severely affecting comorbidities and having experienced a previous traffic injury were some of the prognostic factors identified.

Conclusions

These findings show that MBP is common after traffic collisions, may result in a long recovery process and that a range of biopsychosocial factors are associated with recovery.

Self-reported musculoskeletal pain predicts long-term increase in general health care use: a population-based cohort study with 20-year follow-up

AIMS

Musculoskeletal pain and disability is a modern epidemic and a major reason for seeking health care. The aim of this study is to determine absolute and relative rates of care seeking over 20 years for adults reporting musculoskeletal complaints.

METHODS

Interview data on musculoskeletal pain reported during the past two weeks from the Danish National Cohort Study were merged with data from the Danish National Health Insurance Registry and the National Patient Registry containing information on consultations in the Danish primary and secondary care sector. Absolute and relative rates for all seeking of care with general practitioners, physiotherapists, chiropractors, outpatient hospital contacts and hospital admissions are reported for persons reporting no musculoskeletal pain and for persons reporting pain in the neck, shoulder, wrist/hands, mid back, low back, hips, knees and ankles/feet.

RESULTS

Regardless of site, persons experiencing a musculoskeletal complaint had a statistically increased risk of consulting a general practitioner when compared with persons reporting no musculoskeletal complaint. For physiotherapists and chiropractors, only persons complaining of neck pain and back pain had an increased risk of seeking care. Regardless of pain site, except for shoulder pain, persons reporting musculoskeletal pain had a statistically significant increased risk of outpatient hospital consultations and hospital admissions. Few differences were found between pain sites in relation to any of the outcomes.

CONCLUSIONS

Self-report of musculoskeletal pain reported within the past two weeks predicts a statistically significant long-term increase in general use of health care services in both the primary and the secondary health care sector.

High prevalence of daily and multi-site pain--a cross-sectional population-based study among 3000 Danish adolescents

Background

Daily pain and multi-site pain are both associated with reduction in work ability and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) among adults. However, no population-based studies have yet investigated the prevalence of daily and multi-site pain among adolescents and how these are associated with respondent characteristics. The purpose of this study was to investigate the prevalence of self-reported daily and multi-site pain among adolescents aged 12–19 years and associations of almost daily pain and multi-site pain with respondent characteristics (sex, age, body mass index, HRQoL and sports participation).

Methods

A population-based cross-sectional study was conducted among 4,007 adolescents aged 12–19 years in Denmark. Adolescents answered an online questionnaire during physical education lessons. The questionnaire contained a mannequin divided into 12 regions on which the respondents indicated their current pain sites and pain frequency (rarely, monthly, weekly, more than once per week, almost daily pain), characteristics, sports participation and HRQoL measured by the EuroQoL 5D. Multivariate regression was used to calculate the odds ratio for the association between almost daily pain, multi-site pain and respondent characteristics.

Results

The response rate was 73.7%. A total of 2,953 adolescents (62% females) answered the questionnaire. 33.3% reported multi-site pain (pain in >1 region) while 19.8% reported almost daily pain. 61% reported current pain in at least one region with knee and back pain being the most common sites. Female sex (OR: 1.35-1.44) and a high level of sports participation (OR: 1.51-2.09) were associated with increased odds of having almost daily pain and multi-site pain. Better EQ-5D score was associated with decreased odds of having almost daily pain or multi-site pain (OR: 0.92-0.94).

Conclusion

In this population-based cohort of school-attending Danish adolescents, nearly two out of three reported current pain and, on average, one out of three reported pain in more than one body region. Female sex, and high level of sports participation were associated with increased odds of having almost daily pain and multi-site pain. The study highlights an important health issue that calls for investigations to improve our understanding of adolescent pain and our capacity to prevent and treat this condition.

Low back pain across the life course

Back pain episodes are traditionally regarded as individual events, but this model is currently being challenged in favour of treating back pain as a long-term or lifelong condition. Back pain can be present throughout life, from childhood to older age, and evidence is mounting that pain experience is maintained over long periods: for example, people with pain continue to have it on and off for years, and people without pain do not suddenly develop long-term pain. A number of factors predict back pain presence in epidemiological studies, and these are often present, and predictive, at different life stages. There are also factors present at particular life stages, such as childhood or adolescence, which predict back pain in adulthood. However, there are little published data on long-term pain patterns or predictors over the life course. Such studies could improve our understanding of the development and fluctuations in back pain, and therefore influence treatment approaches.

Is it all about a pain in the back?

Multisite musculoskeletal pain is common among people suffering from low back pain. Although the mechanisms behind co-occurrence of multiple somatic symptoms and musculoskeletal pain are still unknown, patients with co-morbidities and co-occurring musculoskeletal symptoms tend to have worse functional status, a poorer prognosis and respond less favourably to treatment. Evidence also suggests that the more pain sites a patient reports, the more reduced their physical and mental function will be regardless of location of pain. At the same time, evidence suggests that strategies for diagnosis and treatment of low back pain and other musculoskeletal disorders such as neck pain and lower limb osteoarthritis are very similar. In this chapter, we discuss the prevalence, consequences, and implications of commonalities between low back pain, pain in other sites and co-occurring pain. In addition, we propose a conceptual framework for a common stepwise approach to the diagnosis and management of back and musculoskeletal pain.