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Low Back Pain

Epidemiology of low back pain

Low back pain is currently one of the most common and expensive musculoskeletal disorders in the world. The precise causes and treatment strategies for low back pain however, remain elusive. There are also many assumptions and misconceptions surrounding low back pain and this may be a source for the lack of clarity associated with the epidemiology of low back pain.

Typically low back pain is defined as pain, muscle tension of stiffness in the area between the 12th rib and the inferior gluteal folds. This encompasses the lumber spine, pelvis and sacrum. It is generally accepted that 60-85% of all adults worldwide will have low back pain in their lifetime. It is said that the adult population between the ages of 40-60 years have the highest lifetime prevalence rates of all populations with a decrease in the later stages of life (60+years). However, research has helped to clarify that the older adult population (60+ years) does in fact experience high levels of back pain that is severe or disabling and the low back pain does not necessarily drop off with age.

Low back pain is also common among the youth (under 20 years). It is typically cited that that youth statistics for low back pain are not as high as for middle aged adult. However research has shown that over half of the population have their first lower back pain by the time they reach 20 years of age. Thus low back pain affects all populations and age groups and at any given time approximately 30-50% of all the populations will have low back pain.

The Traditional belief concerning low back pain is that approximately 85-90% of the cases will recover well enough within 1-2 months to return to normal activities. However, recent research has demonstrated that 42-75% of low back pain cases still experience pain after 12 months with up to 40% of these cases still being off work 6 months later. Also 44-78% of low back pain cases experience relapses of pain with 26-37% having a relapse of work absence. This gives rise to the notion that low back pain may not progress in a linear manner and does not resolve on its own or in a timely fashion as traditionally thought.

 

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