Incidence and Risk Factors for Acute Low Back Pain in Active Duty Infantry

Abstract

Although much research has been performed on occupational risk factors for low back pain, little has been published on low back pain among infantrymen. This purpose of this study is to evaluate the incidence of acute low back pain amongst active duty infantrymen as compared to a matched control population. The Defense Medical Epidemiology Database was searched and incidence rates were calculated and compared between infantry and noninfantry soldiers. Data was stratified and controlled for age, race, marital status, rank, and branch of service using the Poisson multivariate regression analysis. Significantly lower rates of acute low back pain were discovered in active duty infantrymen when compared to matched controls (32.9 versus 49.5 cases per 1,000 person-years). Additionally, significantly lower rates were identified in the Marines versus the Army, and among junior enlisted compared to senior enlisted service members.

Real-world incidence and prevalence of low back pain using routinely collected data

“…The aim of this systematic literature review was to report LBP prevalence and incidence estimate from studies using patient electronic medical records. The included studies 2.0% M = 1.3%, F = 0.7% Spijker-Huiges et al [23] 1.0% Ernat et al [28] 3.0% Knox et al [24] 4.0% Bartholomeeusen et al [25] 5.1% (95% CI 4.9%, 5.3%), F = 5.3% (95% CI 5.1%, 5.5%), M = 4.9% (95% CI 4.7%, 5.2%) Kuijer et al [18] 5.4%; M = 5.0%, F = 4.0% Miedema et al [27] 0.024% (95% CI 0.022-0.027%), M = 0.031% (95% CI 0.028%, 0.035%), F = 0.003 (95% CI 0.002%, 0.005%) Waterman et al [29] 0.14% Moshe et al 2016 [30] 0.05% Table 4 LBP definition of the studies ICD international classification of disease, ICPC international classification of primary care…”

“…Two studies reported that the incidence of LBP in female was higher than in male [21,25]. Despite the difference in geographical locations where the studies were conducted, the incidence rates some studies have reported were approximately the same [22][23][24]28] (Table 3). 1.4% (M = 1.6%, F = 1.5%) Goetzel et al [21] 15.6% (M = 14.7%, F = 17.8%) Joud et al [20] 3.0% (M = 1.0%, F = 2.0%) Spijker-Huiges et al [23] 1.7% Edwards et al 2018 [26] 3.2%…”

“…Various sources of data were reported in the included studies including the National Dutch Register [18]; Regie de'l Assurance Maladie du Quebec [19]; Skane Health Care Register [20]; Truven Health Market Scan Commercial Claims and Encounters [21]; National Hospital Discharge Register of Finland [22]; registration Network Groningen [23], US Defence Medical Epidemiology Database [24], the Intego Database [25], and the Emergency Department Information System [26] ( Table 1). The included studies were conducted in Belgium [25], Canada [19,26], Finland [22], the Netherlands [18,22,27], Sweden [20], USA [21,24,28,29], and Israel [30]. The sample size used to estimate the prevalence and incidence of LBP in the included studies ranged from 3900 to 7.5 million.…”

“…The incidence rate of LBP was reported in ten studies [18,[21][22][23][24][25][27][28][29][30]. The overall mean incidence of LBP reported from the nine studies ranged between 0.024 and 7.0%.…”

A Narrative Review: Risk Factors of Low Back Pain in Military Personnel/Recruits

“…Study region: In the 31 epidemiology studies examined; 23 studies were from European countries (United States = 17, Finland = 3, Denmark = 1, Sweden = 1, and Norway = 1), two studies from Middle East countries studies (Israel = 1, Turkey = 1), and four studies from Asian countries (China = 2, Malaysia = 1, Korea = 1). Two studies did not mention the region where the studies were conducted [14,15].…”