Table 5.

Likelihood of persistent disabling low back pain according to number of risk factors present

No of factors present*	No of subjects†	No with persistent symptoms	Observed percentage with persistent symptoms
Five/six	30	21	70
Four	43	15	35
Three	45	12	27
None/one/two	49	3	6

^*Factors predicting persistence: female sex, dissatisfaction with employment situation, history of low back pain, radiating leg pain, widespread pain, two or more restrictions in spinal movement. 

^†Does not total 180 as subjects with missing data for any of these six risk factors were not included in multivariate model.