Low back pain and health-related quality of life in community-dwelling older adults

Purpose Investigation of self-reported of low back pain (LBP) over the last month and associated health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in a sample of a community-dwelling population aged ≥65. Methods Cross-sectional study including older adults selected randomly from population records. Data were collected within a sample stratified by age and sex. Physical and psychological healths were investigated using a standardized definition of LBP and the EuroQoL-5D for HRQoL. Analyses were first conducted on the entire sample ( N = 3042) and subsequently considering the subsample who reported LBP and a paired sample drawn from the pool of LBP-free respondents. Results 889 (29 %) respondents reported LBP within the past month, present ‘most days’ or ‘every day’ in 52 % and limiting activities in the same proportion. Average pain score was 4.6 (SD 2.2; 0–10 scale). Age was associated with pain frequency and duration, with younger groups more often reporting pain ‘some days’ and ‘dating back