Psychosocial Factors and Low Back Pain Outcomes in a Pooled Analysis of Low Back Pain Studies.

OBJECTIVE Assessment of possible relationships between work-related psychosocial measures and self-reported low back pain (LBP) outcomes in a large pooled dataset of 1,929 participants from 82 facilities in the United States. METHODS Pooled data from 3 prospective cohort studies were used to calculate odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) for relationships between psychosocial factors and the LBP outcomes. Personal and occupational confounders were controlled for in adjusted Logistic regression models. RESULTS Supervisor support and job satisfaction were significantly (p < 0.05) related to all three LBP outcomes. Other psychosocial factors were significantly (p < 0.05) associated with at least one of the LBP outcomes. Adjusted ORs ranged from approximately 1.50 to 3.50 for most associations. CONCLUSIONS There is a significant relationship between work-related psychosocial measures and LBP outcomes.