Why the study?
Does pregnancy increase the incidence of degenerative spondylolisthesis in women aged 50 years and over with low back pain?
Does pregnancy increase the incidence of degenerative spondylolisthesis in women aged 50 years and over with low back pain?
Pregnancy appears to be an important factor in the etiology of degenerative spondylolisthesis, helping to explain its higher prevalence in women.
Parity may raise degenerative spondylolisthesis risk in women ≥50 with back pain; leaves open causality and needs prospective confirmation.
Degenerative spondylolisthesis is most common at the L4/L5 level and in women. There are several possible reasons for its predilection at this site, but there is no satisfactory explanation for the predominance in women. We considered that pregnancy was a possible influence. We reviewed the records and radiographs of 949 women and 120 men aged 50 years and over who had attended a spinal surgeon for low back pain over a five-year period. We found that women who had borne children had a significantly higher incidence of degenerative spondylolisthesis than nulliparous women (28% v 16.7%; p = 0.043). The men had a 7.5% incidence, significantly less than nulliparous women (p = 0.031). Our results suggest that pregnancy is an important factor in the aetiology of degenerative spondylolisthesis.
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Sanderson et al. (1997) studied this question.