This Iranian population based study is first of its kind which revolves around the occurrence of chronic musculoskeletal pain. These were based on considering many factors like gender, BMI etc. in an efficient manner.

Chronic musculoskeletal pain (CMP) is growing quickly, as low back pain has assigned the first rank in years lived with disability (YLDs) to itself globally, over the past two decades. The primary objective of this study was to investigate the prevalence of chronic neck pain (CNP), chronic low back pain (CLBP), and chronic knee pain (CKP) and their related risk factors in the national Iranian population.

We analyzed data obtained through a cross sectional, population based survey of 7889 Iranian subjects who were between 30 to 70 years old.

Prevalence of CNP, CLBP, and CKP were 15.34%, 27.18%, and 29.97%, respectively. Female gender, aging, having a BMI>=25, having Lur or Arab ethnicity, being illiterate, passive smoking, positive osteoporosis history, and low or high physical activity level were risk factors for CLBP, CNP, and CKP after adjustment for potential confounders. For example, in subjects who had BMI equal or more than 30, odds ratios for CNP, CLBP, and CKP adjusted for age, sex, ethnicity, living area, education, employment status, smoking, and physical activity level were 1.26 (95% confidential interval (CI) 1.04-1.52), 1.37 (95%CI 1.17-1.59), and 1.64 (95%CI 1.41-1.91), respectively.

This is the first study investigating the prevalence of CNP, CLBP, and CKP in the national population of Iran. It shows some modifiable risk factors for CMP, and brings about the idea that affordable planning for these risk factors can be valuable for prevention of CMP globally. Also, this is a cross-sectional study and future longitudinal studies in this field seem to be necessary.