Prevalence and Risk Factors of Low Back Pain in Middle-aged and Elderly People with Sarcopenia: a Nationwide Cross-sectional Study

Objectives This study aimed to clarify the prevalence and associated factors of lower back pain (LBP) in sarcopenia population aged 45 years or older by using a large and diverse cross-sectional dataset. Methods In this national study, data on 8113 participants from CHARLS 2015 were analyzed. The prevalence of LBP was investigated, and multivariable logistic regression analyses were performed to identify factors associated with LBP in sarcopenia population. Findings: The prevalence of LBP was 24.19% (95% CI 22.94–25.44) in sarcopenia population, significantly higher than that in non-sarcopenia (16.4%, 95% CI 15.19–17.61). The prevalence was higher in female (28.91%, 27.13–30.69) than in male (18.43%, 16.74–20.11; p < 0.001 for gender difference) and in people with more than four chronic comorbidities (44.83%, 40.87–48.79) than in those without chronic comorbidities (13.02%, 11.02–15.02; p < 0.001 for the number of chronic diseases difference). The risk factors for LBP in sarcopenia population included diagnosis of heart attack (odds ratio 1.40, 95% CI 1.11–1.77), kidney disease (1.80, 1.30–2.49), gastrointestinal disease (1.62, 1.35–1.94), arthritis or rheumatism (1.76, 1.48–2.10), sleep time of less than 5 h (2.06, 1.36–3.10), living in rural area (1.54, 1.20–1.96), illiteracy (1.64, 1.21–2.22), middle school and higher (1.70, 1.30–2.23), depression (3.16, 2.56–3.89), and so on. Conclusions LBP is highly prevalent in the Chinese sarcopenia population. Chronic diseases, sleep time, residence, educational level, depression, instrumental ADL disability, and history of fall are major risk factors of LBP for sarcopenia population.