LOW-BACK-PAIN IN HONG-KONG - PREVALENCE AND CHARACTERISTICS COMPARED WITH BRITAIN

Study objective - To compare the prevalence of low back pain and assoc iated disability in Hong Kong with that in Britain, and to explore whe ther differences could be explained by certain known risk factors Desi gn - A cross sectional survey with information collected at interview. Findings were compared with those from an earlier survey in Britain. Setting - Two housing blocks in Hong Kong. Subjects - Altogether 288 m en and 364 women aged 18 years or older, who were resident in the two housing blocks and agreed to interview (response rate = 80%). Main res ults - Thirty nine per cent (95% confidence interval (CI) 34%, 44%) of interviews reported having had low back pain at some time, and 21% (9 5% CI 18%, 25%) had had low back pain in the past 12 months. After sta ndardisation for age and sex, all of the back symptoms examined were s ubstantially less common in Hong Kong than in Britain. The one year pe riod prevalence of low back pain was associated with occupational lift ing (in both sexes) and with tall stature (in men only). Subjects tend ed to carry out less heavy lifting at work and to be shorter than part icipants in the earlier British study but these differences did not co mpletely explain their lower prevalence of back pain. Conclusions - Th e findings indicate a lower prevalence of back symptoms in Hong Kong t han Britain that is partly explained by differences in stature and occ upational lifting. In addition, Hong Kong people may have a higher thr eshold for reporting symptoms, or they may differ in their exposure to other, unrecognised risk factors.