Introduction: Japanese Orthopaedic Association Back Pain Evaluation Questionnaire (JOABPEQ) is widely used as a patient-based evaluation tool for lumbar spine disease in Japan. However, there are currently few established JOABPEQ reference values for the general population.

This study proposes population-based reference values for JOABPEQ using a randomly sampled Japanese cohort.

Methods: Registered citizens of 50 to 89 years old were targeted for this survey. We established 8 groups based on age (50’s, 60’s, 70’s, and 80’s) and gender (male and female) after random sampling from the basic resident registry of Obuse town in 2014. A total of 414 participants (202 males and 212 females) were enrolled for calculations of average JOABPEQ scores for each age and gender group. We also evaluated for correlations between JOABPEQ domain scores and visual analogue scale (VAS) scores for low back pain.

Results: Median reference JOABPEQ scores stratified by age and gender were determined in this study. Lumbar function, walking ability, and social life function deteriorated significantly with age in both genders, with remarkable declines for the social life function domain. VAS scores for low back pain were not significantly correlated with JOABPEQ item scores.

Discussion: In the present cohort study of over 400 subjects randomly selected from a rural Japanese town registry, we were able to calculate median reference JOABPEQ scores by age and gender of seniors over 50 years old. The scores for lumbar function, walking ability, and social life function all decreased steadily with age in men and women, with notable declines for social life function. These scores were also significantly lower for subjects in their 70’s and 80’s than in subjects in their 50’s and 60’s for both genders (all p<0.05) apart from men in their 70’s for lumbar function and social life function versus men in their 50’s. The median value for walking ability in octogenarian women was similar to that in octogenarian men (p=0.28).