Epidemiologic study of back pain in miners and office workers

Cross-sectional studies of miners at a Scottish colliery and workers in an administrative office were done to investigate the prevalence of back pain among them and to compare prevalence of pain with type of job. Sixty-two percent of the invited miners and 71% of the office workers participated. More than two thirds of the miners and more than one half of the office workers who participated reported back pain at some time in their lives. No relationship was detected between present job and back pain among the miners, except for a suggestion that recent first attacks of pain were more common in face workers and underground transport workers than in other men. These results confirm that back pain is a common problem in both miners and office workers.