Osteoporosis and back pain among the elderly.

Questionnaire responses from 120 men and 337 women over the age of 50 years were studied to determine the prevalence of back pain among the elderly. In order to gain a rough indication of the back pain among elderly women which might be due to osteoporosis, the prevalence was compared in the two sexes. The prevalence of back pain without radiation to the legs and concomitant morbidity was found to be similar among men and women up to the 70-79-year age-group. After this age the prevalence was higher in women. Those with exceptional loss of body height or kyphosis had a high prevalence of back pain, while those who had sustained previous hip or radius fractures did not. There was increasing prevalence of back pain among women with increasing number of previous fractures. The study gives little indication of serious morbidity of osteoporosis in the form of back pain before very old age.