Leg-length discrepancy is associated with low back pain among those who must stand while working

Table 2 Linear regression analysis on the association of leg-length discrepancy (LLD) of 6 mm or more and other explanatory variables with intensity of low back pain (LBP) during the past week and past 3 months

	Intensity of LBP in the past week^a		Intensity of LBP in the past 3 months^a
	Unadjusted estimate (95% CI)	Adjusted^bestimate (95% CI)	Unadjusted estimate (95% CI)	Adjusted^bestimate (95% CI)
LLD > 5 mm
No	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00
Yes	0.60 (0.37-0.83)^***	0.53 (0.32-0.74)^***	0.54 (0.33-0.76)^***	0.49 (0.29-0.69)^***
Depressive feelings ^c		0.34 (0.21-0.46)^***		0.34 (0.22-0.46)^***
Gender
Male		0.00		0.00
Female		0.23 (−0.02-0.48)		0.31 (0.07-0.54 )^*
Smoking
No		0.00		0.00
Yes		0.14 (−0.11-0.38)		0.08 (−0.16-0.31)
Age ^d		−0.01 (−0.02-0.00)		−0.01 (−0.02-0.01)
Working position ^e
Sitting		0.00		0.00
Standing		0.05 (−0.23-0.33)		0.24 (−0.05-0.48)

^aPain intensity assessed using a 10-cm Visual Analogue Scale. Responses are logarithmized, therefore the interpretation of the estimates differs from the analysis using original scaling. Estimated effect of LLD > 5 mm, 0.53, means that mean intensity of pain is approximately 53% greater compared to LLD ≤ 5 mml; ^bAdjusted for all variables in the table; ^cDepressive feelings=logarithmized total score from the PHQ-9 questionnaire; ^dAge in years; ^eSitting=customary workers, standing=meat cutters; ^*p < 0.05, ^***p < 0.001.

ISSN: 1471-2474