Dr Paul Campbell p.campbell@keele.ac.uk
Honorary Reader
Long-term trajectories of back pain: Cohort study with 7-year follow-up
Campbell, P; Jordan, KP; Dunn, K
Authors
Kelvin Jordan k.p.jordan@keele.ac.uk
Professor Kathryn Dunn k.m.dunn@keele.ac.uk
Abstract
OBJECTIVE: To describe long-term trajectories of back pain. DESIGN: Monthly data collection for 6 months at 7-year follow-up of participants in a prospective cohort study. SETTING: Primary care practices in Staffordshire, UK. PARTICIPANTS: 228 people consulting their general practitioners with back pain, on whom information on 6-month back pain trajectories had been collected during 2001-2003, and who had valid consent and contact details in 2009-2010, were contacted. 155 participants (68% of those contacted) responded and provided sufficient data for primary analyses. OUTCOME MEASURES: Trajectories based on patients' self-reports of back pain were identified using longitudinal latent class analysis. Trajectories were characterised using information on disability, psychological status and presence of other symptoms. RESULTS: Four clusters with different back pain trajectories at follow-up were identified: (1) no or occasional pain, (2) persistent mild pain, (3) fluctuating pain and (4) persistent severe pain. Trajectory clusters differed significantly from each other in terms of disability, psychological status and other symptoms. Most participants remained in a similar trajectory as 7 years previously (weighted ? 0.54; 95% CI 0.42 to 0.65). CONCLUSIONS: Most people with back pain appear to follow a particular pain trajectory over long time periods, and do not have frequently recurring or widely fluctuating patterns. The results are limited by lack of information about the time between data collection periods and by loss to follow-up. However, findings do raise questions about standard divisions into acute and chronic back pain. A new framework for understanding the course of back pain is proposed.
Journal Article Type | Article |
---|---|
Acceptance Date | Nov 8, 2013 |
Publication Date | 2013 |
Publicly Available Date | May 26, 2023 |
Journal | BMJ Open |
Electronic ISSN | 2044-6055 |
Publisher | BMJ Publishing Group |
Peer Reviewed | Peer Reviewed |
Volume | 3 |
Issue | 12 |
Article Number | e003838 |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2013-003838 |
Keywords | epidemiology, primary care, rheumatology |
Publisher URL | http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2013-003838 |
Files
Long-term trajectories of back pain cohort study with 7-year follow-up.pdf
(861 Kb)
PDF
Publisher Licence URL
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
You might also like
Where does it hurt? Small area estimates and inequality in the prevalence of chronic pain
(2023)
Journal Article
Downloadable Citations
About Keele Repository
Administrator e-mail: research.openaccess@keele.ac.uk
This application uses the following open-source libraries:
SheetJS Community Edition
Apache License Version 2.0 (http://www.apache.org/licenses/)
PDF.js
Apache License Version 2.0 (http://www.apache.org/licenses/)
Font Awesome
SIL OFL 1.1 (http://scripts.sil.org/OFL)
MIT License (http://opensource.org/licenses/mit-license.html)
CC BY 3.0 ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/)
Powered by Worktribe © 2024
Advanced Search