title: Frequency and interrelations of risk factors for chronic low back pain in a primary care setting.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Many risk factors have been identified for chronic low back pain (cLBP), but only one study evaluated their interrelations. We aimed to investigate the frequency of cLBP risk factors and their interrelations in patients consulting their general practitioners (GPs) for cLBP.
  
  
  METHODS
  A cross-sectional, descriptive, national survey was performed. 3000 GPs randomly selected were asked to include at least one patient consulting for cLBP. Demographic, clinical characteristics and the presence of cLBP risk factors were recorded. The frequency of each cLBP risk factor was calculated and multiple correspondence analysis (MCA) was performed to study their interrelations.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A total of 2068 GPs (68.9%) included at least 1 patient, for 4522 questionnaires analyzed. In the whole sample of patients, the 2 risk factors most commonly observed were history of recurrent LBP (72.1%) and initial limitation of activities of daily living (66.4%). For working patients, common professional risk factors were beliefs, that LBP was due to maintaining a specific posture at work (79.0%) and frequent heavy lifting at work (65.5%). On MCA, we identified 3 risk-factor dimensions (axes) for working and nonworking patients. The main dimension for working patients involved professional risk factors and among these factors, patients' job satisfaction and job recognition largely contribute to this dimension.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our results shed in light for the first time the interrelation and the respective contribution of several previously identified cLBP risk factors. They suggest that risk factors representing a "work-related" dimension are the most important cLBP risk factors in the working population.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Corentin-Celton Hospital (AP-HP), Paris Descartes University, Issy-les-Moulineaux, France. marie-martine.lefevre-colau@ccl.aphp.fr
authors.forename: Marie-Martine
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Lefevre-Colau
authors.forename: Fouad
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Fayad
authors.forename: François
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Rannou
authors.forename: Jacques
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Fermanian
authors.forename: Fernand
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Coriat
authors.forename: Yann
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Mace
authors.forename: Michel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Revel
authors.forename: Serge
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Poiraudeau
mesh_terms: D002908:Chronic Disease; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D017116:Low Back Pain / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011320:Primary Health Care; D012307:Risk Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires