BACK PAIN AND PARENTHOOD

Objective-To test the hypothesis that reports of back pain in a workin g population are associated with parenthood. Methods-A questionnaire s urvey of back pain in municipal fire fighters and police officers in a municipality in Ontario, Canada. The questionnaire was distributed to current employees of fire and police departments. The survey was comp leted by 129 fire fighters (68% of the active force) and 346 police of ficers (74% of the force). Results-36% of the respondents complained o f a back problem. The prevalence increased from 13% among men aged 19 to 28 to 47% among men aged 49 to 59. The complaint was more common am ong firefighters (42%) than among police officers (33%). In a logistic regression analysis, back problems were significantly associated with the duration of employment, cigarette smoking, and the number of chil dren. Conclusions-Back pain is a multifactorial problem with significa nt impact on the working population. This survey has found that parent hood, a risk factor not previously described among men, is associated with self reported back pain. The mechanism presumably involves liftin g of children or recreational factors. Fatherhood seems to be a confou nder that should be controlled for in studies of occupational causes o f back pain.