Obesity and low back pain: a retrospective cohort study of Japanese males.
Yuko Hashimoto, Ko Matsudaira, Susumu S Sawada and 7 others
PMID 28626304WHAT IT FOUND
Japanese male workers followed for over 20 years had more persistent low back pain when body fat percentage was higher.
The highest fat group had 53 cases per 10,000 men-years, compared with 27 in the lowest group.
Key findings
01Japanese male workers in the highest body fat quartile had 53 persistent low back pain cases per 10,000 men-years, compared with 27 in the lowest quartile.
02The highest body fat quartile had 2.12 times the multivariable-adjusted odds of persistent low back pain compared with the lowest quartile.
03Body fat percentage and BMI each showed a significant positive dose-response relationship with persistent low back pain.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTs
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What it does not show
The study included only Japanese male employees in the greater Tokyo area, so it does not show the same pattern for women, other countries, or other occupations. Persistent low back pain was self-reported in 2009 as always present, without pain severity, cause, imaging findings, or functional limitation. Most of the original 8,638 men were excluded because they retired before 2009, already had low back pain at baseline, failed the exercise test, or had missing data, so the analysed group may not represent the original workforce. Very few men were overweight or obese by WHO criteria, only 169 and 14 respectively, so the estimates for those groups are imprecise. Psychosocial and ergonomic factors were not measured, so the analysis could not adjust for them. As an observational cohort, the study found associations over time and cannot prove that obesity causes persistent low back pain.
Declared interests
The work was supported by a Juntendo University collaborative research grant and a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research. The authors declared no conflicts of interest.