High prevalence of chronic musculoskeletal complaints among women in a Norwegian general population: the Tromsø study

Table 4 Distribution of demographic and lifestyle characteristics in women and men divided by severity of musculoskeletal complaints (MSCs) ⁱ in an adult general population in Northern Norway

		Women (N = 4,220)				Men (N = 4,219)
		MSCs				MSCs
	N = 8,439	None	Mild	Severe		None	Mild	Severe
	N = 8,439	n = 1,393	n = 1,973	n = 854	p ^*	n = 1,807	n = 1,879	n = 533	p ^*
Age (years)^**	54.9	52.5	55.2	55.4	<0.001	54.3	56.5	55.5	<0.001
BMI (kg/m²)^***	26.7	25.3	26.4	27.1	<0.001	27.0	27.3	27.8	<0.001
Self-perceived health status, poor (%)	28.3	10.1^†	26.1^⊺	65.1^‡	<0.001	14.9^†	32.1^⊺	58.8^‡	<0.001
Smoking (%)
Current	19.6	16.5^†	21.2^⊺	29.6^‡	<0.001	15.7^†	19.5	23.1^‡	<0.001
Previous	40.8	35.3^†	38.6	38.4	<0.001	40.3^†	46.6	47.6^‡	<0.001
Marital status (married), (%)	60.4	55.7	58.1	53.7	0.082	64.1	65.6	60.8	0.1
Education level (<13 years), (%)	54.9	44.5^†	58.8^⊺	68.7^‡	<0.001	47.2^†	58.2^⊺	68.4^‡	<0.001
Level of physical activity (%)
Low	18.8	16.5	17.5^⊺	20.8^‡	0.04	17.2^†	19.9^⊺	27.6^‡	<0,001
Moderate	59.6	64.3^†	69.3	69.8^‡	0,05	50.0^†	53.7	50.1	0,07
High	19.6	17.3^†	12.6^⊺	8.6^‡	<0.001	28.9^†	24.2	20.5^‡	<0.001
Very high	2.0	1.9^†	0.7	0.8^‡	0.002	3.9^†	2.2	1.8^‡	0.003

ⁱDefined as having pain and/or stiffness in muscles and joints at least 3 months during the previous year.
All values are (%) except for age and BMI (means).
*ANOVA for continuous variables, and Pearson chi-square for categorical variables.
**Tukey post-hoc test: No MSCs vs mild MSCs (p < 0.001) and no MSCs vs severe MSCs (p < 0.001) was significant in women. No MSCs vs mild MSCs (p < 0.001) was significant in men.
***Tukey post-hoc test: No MSCs vs mild MSCs (p < 0.001), no MSCs vs severe MSCs (p < 0.001) and mild MSCs vs severe MSCs (p < 0.001) was significant in women. Tukey post-hoc test: No MSCs vs severe MSCs (p < 0.001) and mild MSCs vs severe MSCs (p = 0.007) was significant in men.
BMI: body mass index.
^†Z-test: No MSCs vs mild MSCs, p-value <0.05.
^‡Z-test: No MSCs Severe MSCs, p-value <0.05.
^⊺Z-test: Mild MSCs vs Severe MSCs, p-value <0.05.
The Tromsø study.

ISSN: 1756-0500