ArticleJournal of general internal medicine2019
Association of Back Pain with All-Cause and Cause-Specific Mortality Among Older Women: a Cohort Study.
Article in Journal of general internal medicine, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 15 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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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.
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Who cites it
15 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Risk of cancer incidence and mortality in patients with chronic pain: A systematic review and meta-analysis.Cancer metastasis reviews · 2026Pooled it
- Association of Back Pain with Mortality: a Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of Cohort Studies.Journal of general internal medicine · 2021Pooled it
- Pain neuroscience education with physical activity improves physical and psychological outcomes in older women with chronic low back pain.Scientific reports · 2025Trial
- Cancer and the 10-Year Incidence of Chronic Low Back Pain in 407,314 Adults Followed in General Practices in Germany.Journal of clinical medicine · 2024Article
- Association of back pain with all-cause and cause-specific mortality among older men: a cohort study.Pain medicine (Malden, Mass.) · 2024Article
- Intra-Examiner Reliability and Validity of Sagittal Cervical Spine Mensuration Methods Using Deep Convolutional Neural Networks.Journal of clinical medicine · 2024Article
- Association of chronic musculoskeletal pain with mortality among UK adults: A population-based cohort study with mediation analysis.EClinicalMedicine · 2021Article
- Association of Self-Reported Functional Limitations among a National Community-Based Sample of Older United States Adults with Pain: A Cross-Sectional Study.Journal of clinical medicine · 2021Article
- Pain and mortality among older adults in Korea.Epidemiology and health · 2021Article
- The Intersection of Dissemination Research and Acupuncture: Applications for Chronic Low Back Pain.Global advances in health and medicine · 2021Article
- The Association of Pain Phenotype with Neuromuscular Impairments and Mobility Limitations Among Older Primary Care Patients: A Secondary Analysis of the Boston Rehabilitative Impairment Study of the Elderly.PM & R : the journal of injury, function, and rehabilitation · 2020Article
- A Simple Scale for Screening Lower-Extremity Arterial Disease as a Possible Cause of Low Back Pain: a Cross-sectional Study Among 542 Subjects.Journal of general internal medicine · 2020Article
- Mapping evidence on the prevalence, incidence, risk factors and cost associated with chronic low back pain among adults in Sub-Saharan Africa: a systematic scoping review protocol.Systematic reviews · 2020Article
- Increased overall and cause-specific mortality associated with disability among workers' compensation claimants with low back injuries.American journal of industrial medicine · 2020Article
- Long-term mortality in older adults with chronic pain: a nationwide population-based study in Taiwan.European geriatric medicine · 2019Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundThe impact of back pain on disability in older women is well-understood, but the influence of back pain on mortality is unclear.
objectiveTo examine whether back pain was associated with all-cause and cause-specific mortality in older women and mediation of this association by disability.
designProspective cohort study.
settingThe Study of Osteoporotic Fractures.
participantsWomen aged 65 or older. MEASUREMENT: Our primary outcome, time to death, was assessed using all-cause and cause-specific adjusted Cox models. We used a four-category back pain exposure (no back pain, non-persistent, infrequent persistent, or frequent persistent back pain) that combined back pain frequency and persistence across baseline (1986-1988) and first follow-up (1989-1990) interviews. Disability measures (limitations of instrumental activities of daily living [IADL], slow chair stand time, and slow walking speed) from 1991 were considered a priori potential mediators.
resultsOf 8321 women (mean age 71.5, SD = 5.1), 4975 (56%) died over a median follow-up of 14.1 years. A higher proportion of women with frequent persistent back pain died (65.8%) than those with no back pain (53.5%). In the fully adjusted model, women with frequent persistent back pain had higher hazard of all-cause (hazard ratio [HR] = 1.24 [95% CI, 1.11-1.39]), cardiovascular (HR = 1.34 [CI, 1.12-1.62]), and cancer (HR = 1.33, [CI 1.03-1.71]) mortality. No association with mortality was observed for other back pain categories. In mediation analyses, IADL limitations explained 47% of the effect of persistent frequent back pain on all-cause mortality, slow chair stand time, and walking speed, explained 27% and 24% (all significant, p < 0.001), respectively. LIMITATIONS: Only white women were included.
conclusionFrequent persistent back pain was associated with increased mortality in older women. Much of this association was mediated by disability.
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