Fraction and Number of Unemployed Associated with Self-Reported Low Back Pain: A Nation-Wide Cross-Sectional Study in Japan

Kimiko Tomioka, Teruyo Kitahara, Midori Shima and Keigo Saeki
Additional contact information
Kimiko Tomioka: Nara Prefectural Health Research Center, Nara Medical University, Kashihara 634-8521, Nara, Japan
Teruyo Kitahara: Division of Occupational and Environmental Health, Department of Social Medicine, Shiga University of Medical Science, Otsu 520-2192, Shiga, Japan
Midori Shima: Nara Prefectural Health Research Center, Nara Medical University, Kashihara 634-8521, Nara, Japan
Keigo Saeki: Nara Prefectural Health Research Center, Nara Medical University, Kashihara 634-8521, Nara, Japan

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 20, 1-12

Abstract: This study examined a cross-sectional association between self-reported low back pain (LBP) and unemployment among working-age people, and estimated the impact of self-reported LBP on unemployment. We used anonymized data from a nationally representative survey (24,854 men and 26,549 women aged 20–64 years). The generalized estimating equations of the multivariable Poisson regression models stratified by gender were used to estimate the adjusted prevalence ratio (PR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) for unemployment. The population attributable fraction (PAF) was calculated using Levin’s method, with the substitution method for 95% CI estimation. The prevalence of self-reported LBP was 9.0% in men and 11.1% in women. The prevalence of unemployment was 9.3% in men and 31.7% in women. After adjusting for age, socio-economic status, lifestyle habits, and comorbidities, the PR (95% CI) for the unemployment of the LBP group was 1.32 (1.19–1.47) in men and 1.01 (0.96–1.07) in women, compared with the respective non-LBP group. The PAF (95% CI) of unemployment associated with self-reported LBP was 2.8% (1.6%, 4.2%) in men. Because the total population of Japanese men aged 20–64 in 2013 was 36,851 thousand, it was estimated that unemployment in 1037 thousand of the Japanese male working population was LBP-related.

Keywords: low back pain; unemployment; gender difference; population attributable fraction; cross-sectional studies (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/20/10760/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/20/10760/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:20:p:10760-:d:655604

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().