The relationships between low back pain and physical activity, obesity, smoking, and demographics.

Abstract

To test the hypotheses that physical activity level, obesity, smoking, and demographics influence low back pain, 783 subjects (Male = 568; Female = 215) aged 18 years and older who completed the Comprehensive Tests at The University of Michigan Fitness Research Center between 1988 and 1993 participated in this study. To identify subjects with low back pain and to obtain information on lifestyle and biological factors, comprehensive tests were conducted at Time 1 (1988-1993), consisting of the Background Information Form, hydrostatic weighing technique, an exercise stress test, and blood analyses. The Background Information Form asked whether the subjects "recently experienced pain in their lower back." Time 1 data showed low back pain positively related to low physical activity levels (p =.004) based on Chi-square statistics. The sedentary/light physical activity group had a higher percentage of low back pain sufferers at Time 1 than the moderate/high physical activity group (35 versus 25 percent respectively). Male smokers (current/ex-smokers) reported a higher incidence of low back pain than the never smokers (36 versus 27 percent respectively). At Time 2, (1994), Low Back Pain/Lifestyle, and The Minnesota Leisure Time Physical Activity (LTPA) questionnaires were mailed to subjects. Multivariate statistics were used to examine the relationship between low back pain with lifestyle factors and demographics. One of the three models presented was Time 1 predicting Time 2 recent low back pain for all 308 respondents. A second model was Time 1 Predicting Time 2 Low Back Pain for subjects who had NO low back pain at Time 1 but experienced low back pain between Time 1 and Time 2. Being overweight and/or married were significant predictors of low back pain (p = 0.04 with a 95% CI = 0.217-0.956 and p = 0.05 with a 95% CI = 1.005-4.632, respectively). The data suggest that low physical activity level, smoking, being overweight and/or being married may be related to low back pain.