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. 2025 Aug 19;45(9):200. doi: 10.1007/s00296-025-05961-w

Table 2.

Prevalence of any and chronic MSP in the total population (n = 8618), and MSP regions, RMD diagnoses and pain characteristics in the chronic MSP population by 5-year age intervals (n = 2513)

Total 40–44 yrs 45–49 yrs 50–54 yrs 55–59 yrs 60–64 yrs 65–69 yrs 70–75 yrs p-value
Number of participants, n (%) 8618 (100.0) 526 (6.1) 865 (10.0) 1172 (13.6) 1524 (17.7) 1748 (20.3) 1754 (20.4) 1029 (11.9) -
Any MSP, n (%) 4541 (52.7) 280 (53.2) 447 (51.7) 633 (54.0) 832 (54.6) 933 (53.4) 924 (52.7) 492 (47.8) 0.03
Chronic MSP, n (%) 2513 (29.2) 132 (25.1) 207 (24.0) 339 (29.0) 475 (31.2) 551 (31.6) 523 (29.8) 286 (27.8) < 0.01*
Chronic MSP population (n = 2513)
Pain regions, n (%) a
Everywhere 170 (6.8) 3 (2.3) 15 (7.3) 30 (8.9) 37 (7.8) 27 (4.9) 33 (6.3) 25 (8.7) 0.32
Knee, ankle and/or foot 1311 (52.2) 51 (38.6) 100 (48.3) 161 (47.5) 266 (56.0) 315 (57.2) 278 (53.2) 140 (49.0) < 0.01**
Neck, chest and/or shoulder 1638 (65.2) 92 (69.7) 141 (68.1) 236 (69.6) 326 (68.6) 337 (61.2) 334 (63.9) 172 (60.1) 0.13
Low back 1383 (55.0) 86 (65.2) 116 (56.0) 188 (55.5) 256 (53.9) 304 (55.2) 278 (53.2) 155 (54.2) 1.00
Elbow, wrist and/or hand 1013 (40.3) 39 (29.6) 80 (38.7) 136 (40.1) 210 (44.2) 234 (42.5) 222 (42.5) 92 (32.2) 0.02**
Hip and/or pelvis 809 (32.2) 46 (34.9) 60 (29.0) 102 (30.1) 159 (33.5) 185 (33.6) 166 (31.7) 91 (31.8) 1.00
Number of MSP locations, n (%) 0.03*
1 374 (14.9) 19 (14.4) 31 (15.0) 51 (15.0) 56 (11.8) 75 (13.6) 85 (16.3) 57 (19.9)
2 554 (22.1) 32 (24.2) 56 (27.1) 61 (18.0) 95 (20.0) 133 (24.1) 117 (22.4) 60 (21.0)
3 497 (19.8) 32 (24.2) 37 (17.9) 56 (16.5) 103 (21.7) 101 (18.3) 112 (21.4) 56 (19.6)
≥ 4 1088 (43.3) 49 (37.1) 83 (40.1) 171 (50.4) 221 (46.5) 242 (43.9) 209 (40.0) 113 (39.5)
RMD diagnosis , n (%) b, c < 0.01*
Yes 734 (29.2) 21 (15.9) 50 (19.9) 90 (26.5) 130 (27.2) 170 (30.9) 177 (33.8) 96 (33.6)
Osteoarthritis 203 (8.1) 3 (2.3) 11 (5.3) 18 (5.3) 39 (8.2) 43 (7.8) 65 (12.4) 24 (8.4)
Fibromyalgia 125 (5.0) 5 (3.8) 16 (7.7) 23 (6.8) 28 (5.9) 29 (5.3) 17 (3.3) 7 (2.5)
Tendinitis or bursitis 61 (2.4) 1 (0.8) 2 (1.0) 11 (3.2) 7 (1.5) 19 (3.5) 16 (3.1) 5 (1.8)
Other 345 (13.7) 12 (9.1) 21 (10.1) 38 (11.2) 56 (11.8) 79 (14.3) 79 (15.1) 60 (21.0)
No 1777 (70.7) 111 (84.1) 157 (75.9) 249 (73.5) 344 (72.4) 381 (69.2) 346 (66.2) 189 (66.1)
Pain by trauma, n (%) d 295 (11.8) 21 (15.9) 26 (12.6) 37 (10.9) 53 (11.2) 62 (11.3) 58 (11.1) 38 (13.3) 0.72
Pain intensity, mean (SD) d 5.6 (1.7) 5.8 (1.6) 5.5 (1.7) 5.7 (1.8) 5.6 (1.7) 5.5 (1.7) 5.6 (1.8) 5.8 (1.7) 0.47

MSP Musculoskeletal Pain, RMD Rheumatic and Musculoskeletal Diseases

*Chi2 or ANOVA test p-value < 0.05

**p-value < 0.05 after Bonferroni correction

aBonferroni correction was applied for age group comparisons of pain regions

bOnly participants with MSP completed the RMD questionnaire

cNo. of participants with a missing value n = 2

dBased on 2511/2513 participants