ArticleJournal of epidemiology and community health1999
Are risk factors for atherothrombotic disease associated with back pain sickness absence? The Whitehall II Study.
Article in Journal of epidemiology and community health, 1999. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT00005680 (Whitehall II - Social and Occupational Influences On Health and Illness), which is not on this map. Cited by 23 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Whitehall II - Social and Occupational Influences On Health and Illness
Who cites it
23 citing papers in PubMed, 56 citations in OpenAlex.
- Serum lipids and low back pain in male aircraft maintenance technicians: association after ergonomic exposure adjustment.Journal of occupational health · 2026Article
- Association of dyslipidemia with intervertebral disc degeneration: a case-control study.European journal of medical research · 2025Article
- Dyslipidemia Is Positively Associated with Chronic Low Back Pain in Korean Women: Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2010-2012.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Genetically predicted triglycerides mediate the relationship between type 2 diabetes Mellitus and intervertebral disc degeneration.Lipids in health and disease · 2023Article
- Article
- Physical Activity Advice for Prevention and Rehabilitation of Low Back Pain- Same or Different? A Study on Device-Measured Physical Activity and Register-Based Sickness Absence.Journal of occupational rehabilitation · 2022Article
- Prevalence of pain in community-dwelling older adults with hypertension in the United States.Scientific reports · 2022Article
- Prevalence and Risk Factors Associated with Low Back Pain in the Saudi Adult Community: A Cross-Sectional Study.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2021Article
- Serum apolipoprotein B/apolipoprotein A1 ratio in relation to intervertebral disk herniation: a cross-sectional frequency-matched case-control study.Lipids in health and disease · 2021Article
- Sex differences in the association of metabolic syndrome with low back pain among middle-aged Japanese adults: a large-scale cross-sectional study.Biology of sex differences · 2019Article
- C7 slope and its association with serum lipid levels and Modic changes in patients with cervical spondylotic myelopathy.Journal of pain research · 2019Article
- Association between serum lipids and low back pain among a middle-aged Japanese population: a large-scale cross-sectional study.Lipids in health and disease · 2018Article
- Lifestyle factors and risk of sickness absence from work: a multicohort study.The Lancet. Public health · 2018Article
- Modifiable risk factors for chronic back pain: insights using the co-twin control design.The spine journal : official journal of the North American Spine Society · 2017Article
- Article
- Serum lipid levels are positively correlated with lumbar disc herniation--a retrospective study of 790 Chinese patients.Lipids in health and disease · 2016Article
- Association between Hypertension and the Prevalence of Low Back Pain and Osteoarthritis in Koreans: A Cross-Sectional Study.PloS one · 2015Article
- Article
- The association between the history of cardiovascular diseases and chronic low back pain in South Koreans: a cross-sectional study.PloS one · 2014Article
- Do abnormal serum lipid levels increase the risk of chronic low back pain? The Nord-Trøndelag Health Study.PloS one · 2014Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
STUDY
objectiveTo explore the previously stated hypothesis that risk factors for atherothrombotic disease are associated with back pain.
designProspective (mean of four years of follow up) and retrospective analyses using two main outcome measures: (a) short (< or = 7 days) and long (> 7 days) spells of sickness absence because of back pain reported separately in men and women; (b) consistency of effect across the resulting four duration of spell and sex cells.
setting14 civil service departments in London.
participants3506 male and 1380 female white office-based civil servants, aged 35-55 years at baseline. MAIN
resultsIn age adjusted models, low apo AI was associated with back pain across all four duration-sex cells and smoking was associated across three cells. Six factors were associated with back pain in two cells: low exercise and high BMI, waist-hip ratio, triglycerides, insulin and Lp(a). On full adjustment (for age, BMI, employment grade and back pain at baseline), each of these factors retained a statistically significant effect in at least one duration-sex cell. Triglycerides were associated with short and long spells of sickness absence because of back pain in men in fully adjusted models with rate ratios (95% confidence intervals) of 1.53 (1.1, 2.1) and 1.75 (1.0, 3.2) respectively. There was little or no evidence of association in age adjusted models with: fibrinogen, glucose tolerance, total cholesterol, apoB, hypertension, factor VII, von Willebrand factor, electrocardiographic evidence of coronary heart disease and reported angina.
conclusionsIn this population of office workers, only modest support was found for an atherothrombotic component to back pain sickness absence. However, the young age of participants at baseline and the lack of distinction between different types of back pain are likely to bias the findings toward null. Further research is required to ascertain whether a population sub-group of atherothrombotic back pain can be identified.
Indexed as
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.