BACKGROUND: Back pain is often perceived as an epidemic disorder with an ever-increasing prevalence. The objective of this paper is to estimate and compare point and period prevalence rates of back pain from two highly comparable postal surveys, a decade apart within a single regional population in the north of Germany. METHODS: In 1991/1992 and 2003 two systematic random samples of German residents of Lübeck aged 25-74 years were independently drawn from the municipal population registry. They received a short postal questionnaire with maximally two reminders. All data were directly standardised on the age, sex, and educational distribution of the merged samples. A sharp decrease in response rates from 81% in the early 1990s to 60% in 2003 required complex considerations of non-response bias. RESULTS: Both the overall and gender-specific point and 1 year prevalence rates of back pain remained fairly stable as well as the rate of severe disabling back pain. The overall prevalence (adjusted for age, sex, and education) of 'back pain today' was 39.2% (1991/92) and 38.2% (2003), the 1 year prevalence was 75.3% (1991/92) and 73.8% (2003), and the prevalence of severe pain was 9.9% (1991/92) and 10.2% (2003). CONCLUSIONS: The data do not support the widespread public notion of a growing epidemic of back pain in Germany.
BACKGROUND:Back pain is often perceived as an epidemic disorder with an ever-increasing prevalence. The objective of this paper is to estimate and compare point and period prevalence rates of back pain from two highly comparable postal surveys, a decade apart within a single regional population in the north of Germany. METHODS: In 1991/1992 and 2003 two systematic random samples of German residents of Lübeck aged 25-74 years were independently drawn from the municipal population registry. They received a short postal questionnaire with maximally two reminders. All data were directly standardised on the age, sex, and educational distribution of the merged samples. A sharp decrease in response rates from 81% in the early 1990s to 60% in 2003 required complex considerations of non-response bias. RESULTS: Both the overall and gender-specific point and 1 year prevalence rates of back pain remained fairly stable as well as the rate of severe disabling back pain. The overall prevalence (adjusted for age, sex, and education) of 'back pain today' was 39.2% (1991/92) and 38.2% (2003), the 1 year prevalence was 75.3% (1991/92) and 73.8% (2003), and the prevalence of severe pain was 9.9% (1991/92) and 10.2% (2003). CONCLUSIONS: The data do not support the widespread public notion of a growing epidemic of back pain in Germany.
Authors: Janet K Freburger; George M Holmes; Robert P Agans; Anne M Jackman; Jane D Darter; Andrea S Wallace; Liana D Castel; William D Kalsbeek; Timothy S Carey Journal: Arch Intern Med Date: 2009-02-09
Authors: Anna Volodina; Thilo Bertsche; Karel Kostev; Volker Winkler; Walter Emil Haefeli; Heiko Becher Journal: BMC Public Health Date: 2011-06-28 Impact factor: 3.295
Authors: Matthias Claus; Michael Schuster; Stefan Webendörfer; David A Groneberg; Jacqueline Jähner; Daniel Schiffmann Journal: J Occup Med Toxicol Date: 2019-05-28 Impact factor: 2.646
Authors: Carsten Oliver Schmidt; Klaus-Peter Günther; Jens Goronzy; Katinka Albrecht; Jean-François Chenot; Johanna Callhoff; Adrian Richter; Richard Kasch; Wolfgang Ahrens; Heiko Becher; Klaus Berger; Hermann Brenner; Beate Fischer; Claus-Werner Franzke; Wolfgang Hoffmann; Bernd Holleczek; Lina Jaeschke; Carsten Jenning; Karl-Heinz Jöckel; Rudolf Kaaks; Thomas Keil; Alexander Kluttig; Gérard Krause; Oliver Kuß; Michael Leitzmann; Wolfgang Lieb; Jakob Linseisen; Markus Löffler; Claudia Meinke-Franze; Christa Meisinger; Karin B Michels; Rafael Mikolajczyk; Nadia Obi; Annette Peters; Tobias Pischon; Tamara Schikowski; Sabine Schipf; Christof Specker; Henry Völzke; Kerstin Wirkner; Angela Zink; Oliver Sander Journal: Bundesgesundheitsblatt Gesundheitsforschung Gesundheitsschutz Date: 2020-04 Impact factor: 1.513