Risk factors for radiologic cervical spondylosis in Duhok : a case control study

Abstract EN

Background and Objective: Cervical spondylosis is a broad term usually used to denote a chronic degenerative condition generally ascribed to progress in age and other possible risk factors.

The disease is common and may lead to possible neurological deficits.

There is thus a clear need for identifying its probable risk factors in order to better understand their control and prevention.

Patients and methods: A case control study conducted at Duhok's Center for Rheumatic Diseases during the period1st April - 30th September, 2014.

Depending on the presence of symptoms and radiologic findings, 129 patients were selected and registered as ‘cases’ and another 129 patients without radiological abnormalities were collected and registered as ‘controls’.

For each participant age, gender, marital status, weight, height, smoking status, family history, drug use and number of pillows were recorded.

In addition, for men, the history of wearing Kurdish turban (Shashek) was recorded.

The increased risk was estimated by calculating the odds ratio and 95% CI.

Results: Overall, age was found the most significant risk factor in both genders (OR13.55).

For women, the highest odds ratio related to chronic drug use (OR 4.01) followed by BMI (OR 3.44) and sedentary work (OR 2.64).

For men, the highest odds ratio related to Shashek use (OR 16.8) followed by sedentary work (OR 5.6) and smoking (OR 4.18).

Physical activity of ≥ 150 min/week gave a statistically significant negative association in both men and women (OR of 0.34 and 0.18 respectively with a p value <0.05).

Conclusions: Radiological cervical spondylosis is positively associated with aging and sedentary work in both genders.

Significant positive associations were found with chronic drug use and high BMI in women compared to significantly high association with the Kurdish male turban (Shashek) and smoking in men.