Values for the Japanese Orthopaedic Association Back Pain Evaluation Questionnaire in the general elderly population: A Japanese cohort survey randomly sampled from a basic resident registry

Background: Japanese Orthopaedic Association Back Pain Evaluation Questionnaire (JOABPEQ) is widely used as a patient-based evaluation tool for lumbar spine disease in Japan. However, there are currently few established JOABPEQ reference values for the general population. This study proposes population-based reference values for JOABPEQ using a randomly sampled Japanese cohort.

Methods: Registered citizens of 50-89 years old were targeted for this survey. We established 8 groups based on age (50's, 60's, 70's, and 80's) and gender (male and female) after random sampling from the basic resident registry of Obuse town in 2014. A total of 414 participants (202 males and 212 females) were enrolled for calculations of average JOABPEQ scores for each age and gender group. We also evaluated for correlations between JOABPEQ domain scores and visual analogue scale (VAS) scores for low back pain.

Results: Median reference JOABPEQ scores stratified by age and gender were determined in this study. Lumbar function, walking ability, and social life function deteriorated significantly with age in both genders, with remarkable declines for the social life function domain. VAS scores for low back pain were not significantly correlated with JOABPEQ item scores.

Conclusions: This first resident cohort of Japanese individuals determined median JOABPEQ scores by age and gender, which might serve as reference values for future studies.