title: Prevalence of spinal disorders and their relationships with age and gender.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To establish the period prevalence of spinal disorders referred to physical therapy in a university hospital over a 3-year period, and to determine the relationships of common spinal disorders with patients' age and gender.
  
  
  METHODS
  This retrospective study was conducted in the Physical Therapy Department, King Fahd Hospital of the University, Dammam, Saudi Arabia. Computer data of all new electronic referrals from January 2011 to December 2013 were retrieved and reviewed. The computer data included demographic information, referring facility, and diagnosis/disorder.
  
  
  RESULTS
  One thousand six hundred and sixty-nine (28.1%) of all referred patients (5929) had spinal disorders. The most common disorders affected the lumbar spine (53.1%) and cervical spine (27.1%), and pain was the most common disorder. Neck pain (60.5%) was more common in patients less than 30 years old (p less than 0.001). Cervical spondylosis was common (~30%) in the greater than 30 age groups. Spondylosis and low back pain were more prevalent in women (7.8% and 76.2%) than in men (73.9% and 3.3%).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Spinal disorders were common compared with other disorders. Low back pain and neck pain were the most common spinal disorders. Age and gender were weakly related to some of the disorders that affected the lumbar and cervical spine.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physical Therapy, College of Applied Medical Sciences, University of Dammam, PO Box 2435, Dammam 31441, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. E-mail. alshami@uod.edu.sa.
authors.forename: Ali M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Alshami
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D017677:Age Distribution; D000368:Aged; D002574:Cervical Vertebrae; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D055959:Intervertebral Disc Degeneration / Q000453:epidemiology*; D017116:Low Back Pain / Q000453:epidemiology*; D008159:Lumbar Vertebrae; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D019547:Neck Pain / Q000453:epidemiology*; D015995:Prevalence; D011843:Radiculopathy / Q000453:epidemiology*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012529:Saudi Arabia / Q000453:epidemiology; D017678:Sex Distribution; D013122:Spinal Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology; D055009:Spondylosis / Q000453:epidemiology*