SynthesisJournal of general internal medicine2021
Association of Back Pain with Mortality: a Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of Cohort Studies.
Synthesis in Journal of general internal medicine, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 16 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
16 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 27 citations in OpenAlex.
- Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of the Effectiveness of Radiofrequency Ablation of the Sacroiliac Joint.Current pain and headache reports · 2024Pooled it
- Exercise training and depression and anxiety in musculoskeletal pain patients: a meta-analysis of randomized control trials.Neuropsychiatrie : Klinik, Diagnostik, Therapie und Rehabilitation : Organ der Gesellschaft Osterreichischer Nervenarzte und Psychiater · 2023Pooled it
- Which lumbar spinal stenosis patients will improve with nonsurgical treatment? A secondary analysis of a randomized controlled trial.Chiropractic & manual therapies · 2025Trial
- Regional Burden of Spinal Pain in Asia-Pacific Countries and Territories, 1990-2023: A Systematic Analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2023.Journal of pain research · 2026Article
- Impact of Postoperative Chronic Back Pain Syndrome on the Incidence of Psychiatric and Brain Disorders, and All-Cause Mortality.Journal of pain research · 2026Article
- A Painful Reality Check? Examining the Accuracy of Subjective Survival Probabilities by Pain Interference and Depression Status.Journal of aging and health · 2026Article
- M2 macrophages activate the IL-10/JAK2/STAT3 pathway to induce pathological microangiogenesis in the nucleus pulposus exacerbating intervertebral disc degeneration.Journal of orthopaedic surgery and research · 2025Article
- Reply to Shen et al.Pain · 2025Article
- The causal effects between low back pain and cerebrospinal fluid metabolites: a two-sample Mendelian randomization study.Hereditas · 2025Article
- Life satisfaction and chronic musculoskeletal pain at the baseline of ELSA-Brasil MSK.Revista brasileira de epidemiologia = Brazilian journal of epidemiology · 2025Article
- Association of back pain with all-cause and cause-specific mortality among older men: a cohort study.Pain medicine (Malden, Mass.) · 2024Article
- Association Between Socioeconomic Inequalities in Pain and All-Cause Mortality in the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study: Longitudinal Cohort Study.JMIR public health and surveillance · 2024Article
- The Clinical Significance of the Modic Changes Grading Score.Global spine journal · 2024Article
- Musculoskeletal Pain, Physical Activity, Muscle Mass, and Mortality in Older Adults: Results from the Korean Longitudinal Study on Health and Aging (KLoSHA).Medicina (Kaunas, Lithuania) · 2024Article
- Intervertebral disc degeneration and osteoarthritis: a common molecular disease spectrum.Nature reviews. Rheumatology · 2023Review
- Pain and mortality among older adults in Korea.Epidemiology and health · 2021Article
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 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundBack pain is the most common cause of disability worldwide. While disability generally is associated with greater mortality, the association between back pain and mortality is unclear. Our objective was to examine whether back pain is associated with increased mortality risk and whether this association varies by age, sex, and back pain severity.
methodsA systematic search of published literature was conducted using PubMed, Web of Science, and Embase databases from inception through March 2019. We included English-language prospective cohort studies evaluating the association of back pain with all-cause mortality with follow-up periods >5 years. Three reviewers independently screened studies, abstracted data, and appraised risk of bias using the Quality in Prognosis Studies (QUIPS) tool. A random-effects meta-analysis estimated combined odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI), using the most adjusted model from each study. Potential effect modification by a priori hypothesized factors (age, sex, and back pain severity) was evaluated with meta-regression and stratified estimates.
resultsWe identified eleven studies with 81,337 participants. Follow-up periods ranged from 5 to 23 years. The presence of any back pain, compared to none, was not associated with an increase in mortality (OR, 1.06; 95% CI, 0.97 to 1.16). However, back pain was associated with mortality in studies of women (OR, 1.22; 95% CI, 1.02 to 1.46) and among adults with more severe back pain (OR, 1.26; 95% CI, 1.14 to 1.40).
conclusionBack pain was associated with a modest increase in all-cause mortality among women and those with more severe back pain.
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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.