Is Back Pain Associated with Increased Mortality Risk?
According to a recent study, older individuals with spinal pain have 13% increased risk of mortality per year lived, but the connection is not causal.1
Researchers examined the possible association between spinal pain and all-cause and cardiovascular mortality in 4391 Danish twins 70 years and older. Data collected at the start of the trial was compared to data on the Danish Cause of Death Registry, and 2 crude and adjusted Cox proportional hazards regression analyses were used to determine the rate of all-cause and disease-specific cardiovascular mortality. In addition, researchers adjusted analyses for baseline physical functional ability and depressive symptoms.
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Overall, the analysis showed that spinal pain was associated with an increased rate of all-cause mortality (hazard ratio 1.13).
However, researchers did not find an association between spinal pain and cardiovascular disease mortality. After adjusting for confounders, the association became non-significant.
“This association is not likely to be causal, with the relevant confounders contributing to this relationship,” the researchers concluded.
“These findings warrant further investigation because while there is a clear link between back pain and mortality we don’t know yet why this is so. Spinal pain may be part of a pattern of poor health and poor functional ability, which increases mortality risk in the older population,” said senior author Paulo Ferreria, associate professor of Physiotherapy at the University of Sydney.2
—Melissa Weiss
Reference:
1] Fernandez M, Boyle E, Hartvigsen J, et al. Is this back pain killing me? All-cause and cardiovascular-specific mortality in older Danish twins with spinal pain [published online February 17, 2017]. EJP. doi:10.1002/ejp.996.
2] Is back pain killing us? [press release]. Sydney, Australia: University of Sydney; February 24, 2017. http://sydney.edu.au/news-opinion/news/2017/02/24/is-back-pain-killing-us-.html.