Abstract
Background and purpose
Over the past decade, it has become apparent that more often than not musculoskeletal pain occurs in more than one site in an individual, and traditional approaches, where pain has been studied as a narrow site-specific problem, are often not feasible. The overall aim of this study is to describe clusters of pain using a large population-based sample. This presentation will focus specifically on musculoskeletal co-complaints in back pain sufferers.
Methods and results
The Danish National Institute of Public Health has since 1987 conducted national representative health interview surveys of the adult Danish population some of which have included questions on musculoskeletal complaints. We used latent class analysis to identify latent classes of musculoskeletal complaints that occurred alongside a primary complaint of back pain. In addition, probabilities that specific sites occurred as co-complaints were determined. Three latent classes were identified and they exhibited quite different patterns of musculoskeletal co-complaints. The most commonly occurring class had a low probability of any co-complaints, the second most commonly occurring class had a high probability of pain in the neck, shoulders and mid-back, while the least commonly occurring class had very high probabilities of pain at all other body sites.
Conclusions
Latent class analysis can be used to identify distinctly different groups of pain patterns in persons primarily complaining of back pain. The three groups identified likely have very different prognoses.
Conflicts of Interest
None
Source of Funding
None
This abstract has not been previously published in whole or substantial part nor has it been presented previously at a national meeting
