Table 4 Patient comorbidities associated with other LBP patient variables
Demographic variable | Categories | LBP only (n = 63) | 1–2 comorbidities (n = 61) | 3 or more comorbidities (n = 40) | p value |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Gender* | Male | 60% | 37% | 37% | 0.012* |
Female | 40% | 63% | 63% | ||
Age | 18–39 | 10% | 8% | 5% | 0.574 |
40–54 | 30% | 29% | 18% | ||
55–74 | 52% | 48% | 58% | ||
75+ | 8% | 16% | 18% | ||
Educational attainment | Year 10 & under | 25% | 25% | 45% | 0.421 |
HSC | 16% | 14% | 16% | ||
Trade Cert/Diploma | 40% | 43% | 26% | ||
University | 19% | 17% | 13% | ||
Work status | Employed | 44% | 31% | 34% | 0.186 |
Unemployed | 2% | 0% | 3% | ||
Retired | 48% | 52% | 58% | ||
Student/other | 6% | 18% | 5% | ||
Health status* | Poor to fair | 30% | 35% | 63% | 0.006* |
Average | 33% | 40% | 26% | ||
Good to excellent | 37% | 25% | 11% | ||
Accessibility of healthcare | Difficult to very difficult | 14% | 14% | 21% | 0.575 |
Neither | 8% | 11% | 16% | ||
Easy to very easy | 78% | 75% | 63% | ||
Medical literacy | Low | 3% | 3% | 8% | 0.669 |
Moderate | 16% | 13% | 18% | ||
High | 81% | 84% | 74% |