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Abstract
Objectives This study aims to estimate the prevalence of low back pain (LBP) in Europe and to quantify its associated mental and physical health burdens among adults in European urban areas.
Design This research is a secondary analysis of data from a large multicountry population survey.
Setting The population survey on which this analysis is based was conducted in 32 European urban areas across 11 countries.
Participants The dataset for this study was collected during the European Urban Health Indicators System 2 survey. There were a total of 19 441 adult respondents but data from 18 028, 50.2% female (9 050) and 49.8% male (8 978), were included in these analyses.
Primary and secondary outcome measures Being a survey, data on the exposure (LBP) and outcomes were collected simultaneously. The primary outcomes for this study are psychological distress and poor physical health.
Results The overall European prevalence of LBP was 44.6% (43.9–45.3) widely ranging from 33.4% in Norway to 67.7% in Lithuania. After accounting for sex, age, socioeconomic status and formal education, adults in urban Europe suffering LBP had higher odds of psychological distress aOR 1.44 (1.32–1.58) and poor self-rated health aOR 3.54 (3.31–3.80). These associations varied widely between participating countries and cities.
Conclusion Prevalence of LBP, and its associations with poor physical and mental health, varies across European urban areas.
- EPIDEMIOLOGY
- PUBLIC HEALTH
- MENTAL HEALTH
Data availability statement
Data are available upon reasonable request. The dataset associated with this study is available upon reasonable request by an email to: danpope@liverpool.ac.uk.
This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported (CC BY 4.0) license, which permits others to copy, redistribute, remix, transform and build upon this work for any purpose, provided the original work is properly cited, a link to the licence is given, and indication of whether changes were made. See: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
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Data availability statement
Data are available upon reasonable request. The dataset associated with this study is available upon reasonable request by an email to: danpope@liverpool.ac.uk.
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Footnotes
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Contributors CIU and DP contributed to the conceptualisation and the design of this study. DP facilitated the acquisition of the data. CIU and DP contributed to the analysis and interpretation of the data, both authors contributed to the drafting and proofreading of the manuscripts and have approved of its submission. CIU holds full responsibility for the work and/or the conduct of the study.
Funding This work was supported by The Commonwealth Scholarship Commission (grant number NGSS-184-2015).
Competing interests None declared.
Patient and public involvement Patients and/or the public were not involved in the design, or conduct, or reporting, or dissemination plans of this research.
Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.
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