Patterns of Back Pain Examined in Recent Study

Nearly 1-in-5 individuals with back pain (BP) experience a persistent trajectory with associated increased pain, disability, and healthcare use, according to the results of a recent study.

In order to identify BP trajectory groups and compare indicators of health, medication, and healthcare use, researchers conducted a study of a representative sample (n=12,782) of the Canadian population. Participants were interviewed bi-annually and reported information on socio-demographic behavior, depression, comorbidities, pain, disability, medication use, and healthcare use. Group-based trajectory analysis was used to create groups based upon course of BP (persistent, developing, recovery, and occasional).

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Overall, 45.6% of the participants reported BP at least once between 1994 and 2011, with 18% in the persistent group, 28.1% in the developing group, 20.5% in the recovery group, and 33.4% in the occasional group.

Individuals in the persistent and developing groups had more pain preventing activities, disability, depression, and comorbidities than those in the recovery and the occasional groups, and significant differences in patterns of medication and healthcare use were observed across groups. Further, those in the recovery group had an increasing trajectory of opioid and antidepressant use.

“Further research is needed to determine whether the identified groups represent different diagnoses, which may provide insights to the selection of stratified treatments and aid designing early prevention and management strategies in the population.”

—Michael Potts

Reference:

Canizares M, Rampersaud YR, Badley EM, et al. The course of back pain in the Canadian population: trajectories, predictors, and outcomes [published online January 14, 2019]. Arth Care Res. https://doi.org/10.1002/acr.23811