Low back pain patterns over one year among 842 workers in the DPhacto study and predictors for chronicity based on repetitive measurements

Table 4 Distribution of baseline demographics in the four generated categories of low back pain in Dphacto, N = 842

		Low intensity Low variation	Low intensity High variation	High intensity High variation	High intensity Low variation
		n = 287 (34 %)	n = 216 (26 %)	n = 182 (22 %)	n = 157 (19 %)
	n	%	%	%	%
Age (years), mean (SD)	842	45 (9)	44 (10)	46 (9)	47 (9)
Gender	842
Male	430	36	27	20	18
Female	412	32	24	24	20
Sector	842
Manufacturing	602	35	26	22	18
Cleaning	164	30	23	24	23
Transport	76	37	30	14	18
Position	842
Blue-collar	693	32	25	22	21
White-collar	149	44	30	19	7
Seniority	816
0–5 years	178	34	29	19	17
5–10 years	192	33	30	20	16
10–20 years	220	35	22	26	17
> 20 years	226	34	23	20	23
Workability^a	842
9–10	468	43	26	19	12
8	211	29	25	24	22
0–7	163	15	26	26	33
Physical strain at work^a	813
1–3	224	42	29	18	11
4–7	415	35	24	21	20
8–10	174	22	25	28	25
BMI (kg/m2)	842
< 25	306	36	26	18	20
25–30	320	35	25	22	18
> 30	216	30	26	26	18
Back endurance^b	842
= > 90 sec	326	45	28	16	11
46–89 sec	89	27	38	17	18
11–45 sec	124	33	28	19	20
< 10 sec	303	25	18	30	27
LBP intensity baseline	837
0	257	61	27	7	5
1–4	295	36	28	20	15
5–7	175	11	25	30	34
8–10	110	2	18	47	33

Demographical distribution of the four categories of LBP: (1) ‘Low Pain Level and low Pain Variation’, (2) ‘Low Pain Level and high Pain Variation’, (3) ‘High Pain Level and high Pain Variation’ and (4) ‘High Pain Level and low Pain Variation’
SD standard deviation, BMI body mass index, LBP low back pain
^aHigh workability and low physical strain at work is preferable
^bThe longer back endurance the better

ISSN: 1471-2474