Increasing prevalence of chronic musculoskeletal complaints. A large 11-year follow-up in the general population (HUNT 2 and 3)

Pain Medicine

Volumn 12, Issue 11, 2011, Pages 1657-1666

  Hagen, Knut ^a,b   Linde, Mattias ^a,b   Heuch, Ingrid ^c   Stovner, Lars Jacob ^a,b   Zwart, John Anker ^a,c  

^a NORWEGIAN UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY   (Norway)

^b TRONDHEIM UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL   (Norway)

^c OSLO UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL   (Norway)

Author keywords

Chronic widespread musculoskeletal pain; Epidemiology; General population; Prevalence; Time trends

Indexed keywords

ADULT; AGED; ARTHRALGIA; ARTICLE; BACKACHE; CHRONIC DISEASE; CROSS-SECTIONAL STUDY; FEMALE; FOLLOW UP; HUMAN; JOINT STIFFNESS; MAJOR CLINICAL STUDY; MALE; MUSCLE STIFFNESS; MUSCULOSKELETAL DISEASE; MYALGIA; NECK PAIN; PREVALENCE;

EID: 81855185611     PISSN: 15262375     EISSN: 15264637     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1111/j.1526-4637.2011.01240.x     Document Type: Article

References (42)

1. Statistics of sick leave in Norway in 2010. Available at: (accessed May 2011).
2. WHO Scientific Group. Burden of musculoskeletal conditions at the start of the new millennium. Technical Report Series. Genove, Switzerland: World Health Organization; 2003:1-218.
3. Woolf AD, Pfleger B. Burden of major musculoskeletal conditions. Bull World Health Organ 2003;81:646-56.
4. McBeth J, Jones K. Epidemiology of chronic musculoskeletal pain. Best Pract Res Clin Rheumatol 2007;21:403-25.
5. Heistaro S, Vartiainen E, Heliövaara M, Puska P. Trends of back pain in eastern Finland, 1972-1992, in relation to socioeconomic status and behavioral risk factors. Am J Epidemiol 1998;148:671-82.
6. Leino PI, Berg MA, Puska P. Is back pain increasing? Results from national surveys in Finland during 1978/9-1992. Scand J Rheumatol 1994;23:269-76.
7. Palmer KT, Walsh K, Bendall H, Cooper C, Coggon D. Back pain in Britain: Comparison of two prevalence surveys at an interval of 10 years. BMJ 2000;320:1577-8.
8. Jiménez-Sánchez S, Jiménez-García R, Hernández-Barrera V, etal. Has the prevalence of invalidating musculoskeletal pain changed over the last 15 years (1993-2006)? A Spanish population-based survey. J Pain 2010;11:612-20.
9. Ahacic K, Kåreholt I. Prevalence of musculoskeletal pain in the general Swedish population from 1968 to 2002: Age, period, and cohort patterns. Pain 2010;151:206-14.
10. Wolfe F, Smythe HA, Yunus MB, etal. The American College of Rheumatology 1990 Criteria for the Classification of Fibromyalgia. Report of the Multicenter Criteria Committee. Arthritis Rheum 1990;33:160-72.
11. Harkness EF, Macfarlane GJ, Silman AJ, McBeth J. Is musculoskeletal pain more common now than 40 years ago?: Two population-based cross-sectional studies. Rheumatology (Oxford) 2005;44:890-5.
12. Croft P, Rigby AS, Boswell R, Schollum J, Silman A. The prevalence of chronic widespread pain in the general population. J Rheumatol 1993;20:710-3.
13. Hunt IM, Silman AJ, Benjamin S, McBeth J, Macfarlane GJ. The prevalence and associated features of chronic widespread pain in the community using the "Manchester" definition of chronic widespread pain. Rheumatology (Oxford) 1999;38:275-9.
14. Aas RW, Tuntland H, Holte KA, etal. Workplace interventions for neck pain in workers. Cochrane Database Syst Rev 2011;4:CD008160.
15. Sulutvedt HS, Werpen HKB, Zwart JA, Hagen K. Physical activity as a predictor for chronic musculoskeletal complaints: Results from the Nord-Trøndelag Heath Study. BMC Musculoskelet Disord 2008;9:159.
16. Heuch I, Hagen K, Heuch I, Nygaard Ø, Zwart JA. The impact of body mass index on the prevalence of low back pain: The HUNT study. Spine 2010;35:764-8.
17. Svebak S, Hagen K, Zwart J-A. One-year prevalence of chronic musculoskeletal pain in an adult Norwegian county population. Relation with age and gender. The HUNT study. J Musk Pain 2006;14:21-8.
18. Hagen K, Svebak S, Zwart JA. Incidence of musculoskeletal complaints in a large adult Norwegian county population. The HUNT study. Spine 2006;31:2146-50.
19. Hagen K, Zwart JA, Svebak S, Bovim G, Stovner LJ. Low socio-economic status is associated with musculoskeletal symptoms among 46, 901 adults in Norway. Scand J Public Health 2005;33:268-75.
20. Heuch I, Heuch I, Hagen K, Zwart JA. Associations between serum lipid levels and chronic low back pain. Epidemiology 2010;21:837-41.
21. Hagen K, Einarsen C, Zwart JA, Svebak S, Bovim G. The co-occurrence of headache and musculoskeletal symptoms among 51, 050 adults in Norway. Eur J Neurol 2002;9:527-33.
22. Hagen K, Bjøro T, Zwart JA, etal. Do high TSH values protect against chronic musculoskeletal complaints? The Nord-Trøndelag Health Study (HUNT). Pain 2005;113:416-21.
23. Hoff OM, Midthjell K, Zwart JA, Hagen K. The association between diabetes mellitus, glucose, and chronic musculoskeletal complaints. Results from the Nord-Trøndelag Health. BMC Musculoskelet Disord 2008;9:160.
24. Hagen K, Stovner LJ, Pettersen E, Skorpen F, Zwart JA. No association between chronic musculoskeletal complains and Val/Met polymorphism in the catechol-O-methyltransferase gene. The HUNT study. BMC Musculoskelet Disord 2006;7:40.
25. Kuorinka I, Jonsson B, Kilbom A, etal. Standardised Nordic questionnaires for the analysis of musculoskeletal symptoms. Appl Ergon 1987;18:233-7.
26. Franzblau A, Salerno DF, Armstrong TJ, Werner RA. Test-retest reliability of an upper-extremity discomfort questionnaire in an industrial population. Scand J Work Environ Health 1997;23:299-307.
27. Palmer K, Smith G, Kellingray S, Cooper C. Repeatability and validity of an upper limb and neck discomfort questionnaire: The utility of the standardized Nordic questionnaire. Occup Med 1999;49:171-5.
28. Hagen K, Zwart JA, Aamodt AH, etal. The validity of questionnaire-based diagnoses: The third Nord-Trøndelag health study 2006-2008. J Headache Pain 2010;11:67-73.
29. Bjelland I, Dahl AA, Haug TT, Neckelman D. The validity of the hospital anxiety and depression scale. An updated literature review. J Psychosom Res 2002;52:69-77.
30. Andersson HI, Ejlertsson G, Leden I, Rosenberg C. Chronic pain in a geographically defined general population: Studies of differences in age, gender, social class, and pain localization. Clin J Pain 1993;9:174-82.
31. Elliott AM, Smith BH, Penny KI, Smith WC, Chambers WA. The epidemiology of chronic pain in the community. Lancet 1999;354:1248-52.
32. Sirnes E, Sødal E, Nurk E, Tell GS. Epidemiology of musculoskeletal complaints in Hordaland, Norway. Tidsskr Nor Laegeforen 2003;123:2855-9.
33. Picavet HSJ, Schouten JSAG. Musculoskeletal pain in The Netherlands: Prevalences, consequences and risk groups, the DMC3-study. Pain 2003;102:167-78.
34. Bergman S, Herrström P, Hogstrom K, etal. Chronic musculoskeletal pain, prevalence rates, and sociodemographic associations in a Swedish population study. J Rheumatol 2001;28:1369-77.
35. Andersson HI, Ejlersson G, Leden I, Rosenberg C. Characteristics of subjects with chronic pain, in relation to local and widespread pain report. Scand J Rheumatol 1996;25:146-54.
36. Wolfe F, Ross K, Anderson J, Russell IJ, Hebert L. The prevalence and characteristics of fibromyalgia in the general population. Arthritis Rheum 1995;38:19-28.
37. Lindell L, Bergman S, Petersson IF, Jacobsson LT, Herrstrom P. Prevalence of fibromyalgia and chronic widespread pain. Scand J Prim Health Care 2000;18:149-53.
38. McBeth J, Nicholl BI, Cordingley L, Davies KA, Macfarlane GJ. Chronic widespread pain predicts physical inactivity: Results from the prospective EPIFUND study. Eur J Pain 2010;14:972-9. [Epub ahead of print].
39. Leboeuf-Yde C, Klougart N, Lauritzen T. How common is low back pain in the Nordic population? Data from a recent study on a middle-aged general Danish population and four surveys previously conducted in the Nordic countries. Spine 1996;21:1518-25.
40. Leijon O, Wahlström J, Mulder M. Prevalence of self-reported neck-shoulder-arm pain and concurrent low back pain or psychological distress: Time-trends in a general population, 1990-2006. Spine 2009;34:1863-8.
41. Sjøgren P, Ekholm O, Peuckmann V, Grønbaek M. Epidemiology of chronic pain in Denmark: An update. Eur J Pain 2009;13:287-92.
42. Punamäki RL, Wallenius M, Nygård CH, Saarni L, Rimpelä A. Use of information and communication technology (ICT) and perceived health in adolescence: The role of sleeping habits and waking-time tiredness. J Adolesc 2007;30:569-85.