Back pain affects women more than men Free Press

Berlin (dpa) – According to a survey by the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), women in Germany have more back and neck pain than men and have more episodes of pain.

They also report chronic back pain more often, shows the “Health Watch Journal” RKI published on Wednesday. Therefore, the gender differences in perception of pain intensity are “slight”.

On average, according to the study, about 61 percent of the 5,000 participants reported having experienced back pain at least once in the past 12 months. For women it was two thirds (66%), and for men, 56%. According to the RKI, the difference is also clear for neck pain (women: 55%; men: 36%), as well as for chronic back pain, that is, occurring almost daily for at least three months (women: 18.5%; men: 12.4 in Cent).

The authors cite various points as possible causes of a higher degree of anxiety among women, including anatomical differences such as muscle strength. Women often view their bodies differently from men and “tend to respond more sensitively to pain,” they say. The extent of the impact of regulations on working from home on back problems in the population cannot be derived from the survey. It was actually operational between October 2019 and March 2020. Participants were not physically scanned.