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Do the associations of body mass index and waist circumference with back pain change as people age? 32 years of follow-up in a British birth cohort

Muthuri, S; Cooper, R; Kuh, D; Hardy, R; (2020) Do the associations of body mass index and waist circumference with back pain change as people age? 32 years of follow-up in a British birth cohort. BMJ Open , 10 (12) , Article e039197. 10.1136/bmjopen-2020-039197. Green open access

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Abstract

Objectives: To investigate whether cross-sectional and longitudinal associations of body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference (WC) with back pain change with age and extend into later life. / Design: British birth cohort study. / Setting: England, Scotland and Wales. / Participants: Up to 3426 men and women from the MRC National Survey of Health and Development. / Primary outcome measures: Back pain (sciatica, lumbago or recurring/severe backache all or most of the time) was self-reported during nurse interviews at ages 36, 43, 53 and 60–64 years and in a postal questionnaire using a body manikin at age 68. / Results: Findings from mixed-effects logistic regression models indicated that higher BMI was consistently associated with increased odds of back pain across adulthood. Sex-adjusted ORs of back pain per 1 SD increase in BMI were: 1.13 (95% CI: 1.01 to 1.26), 1.11 (95% CI: 1.00 to 1.23), 1.17 (95% CI: 1.05 to 1.30), 1.31 (95% CI: 1.15 to 1.48) and 1.08 (95% CI: 0.95 to 1.24) at ages 36, 43, 53, 60–64 and 68–69, respectively. Similar patterns of associations were observed for WC. These associations were maintained when potential confounders, including education, occupational class, height, cigarette smoking status, physical activity and symptoms of anxiety and depression were accounted for. BMI showed stronger associations than WC in models including both measures. / Conclusions: These findings demonstrate that higher BMI is a persistent risk factor for back pain across adulthood. This highlights the potential lifelong consequences on back pain of the rising prevalence of obesity within the population.

Type: Article
Title: Do the associations of body mass index and waist circumference with back pain change as people age? 32 years of follow-up in a British birth cohort
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1136/bmjopen-2020-039197
Publisher version: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-039197
Language: English
Additional information: This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported (CC BY 4.0) license, which permits others to copy, redistribute, remix, transform and build upon this work for any purpose, provided the original work is properly cited, a link to the licence is given, and indication of whether changes were made. See: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education > IOE - Social Research Institute
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > Institute of Cardiovascular Science
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10118522
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