Table 1 General characteristics of study participants
From: Comparison of facet joint degeneration in firefighters and hospital office workers
Variables | Firefighters(N = 341) | Office workers(N = 80) | p-value | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
n | % | n | % | |||
Age (years) | 20–29 | 89 | 26.0 | 20 | 25 | 0.832 |
30–39 | 96 | 28.4 | 20 | 25 |  | |
40–49 | 86 | 25.1 | 20 | 25 |  | |
50–59 | 70 | 20.5 | 20 | 25 |  | |
Height (cm) | Mean ± SD | 174.0 ± 5.12 | 174.7 ± 10.43 | 0.391 | ||
Weight (kg) | Mean ± SD | 74.0 ± 8.11 | 74.2 ± 10.11 | 0.376 | ||
BMI | Mean ± SD | 24.4 ± 2.49 | 25.0 ± 3.12 | 0.137 | ||
Physical exercise(times/week) | <1 | 112 | 32.9 | 23 | 28.8 | 0.703 |
1~2 | 113 | 33.1 | 30 | 37.5 | Â | |
≥3 | 116 | 34.0 | 27 | 33.7 |  | |
Duration of employment(years) | <5 | 112 | 32.8 | 21 | 26.2 | 0.771 |
5–9 | 48 | 14.1 | 14 | 17.5 |  | |
10–14 | 32 | 9.4 | 8 | 10.0 |  | |
15–19 | 51 | 15.0 | 11 | 13.8 |  | |
≥20 | 98 | 28.7 | 26 | 32.5 |  | |
Alcohol consumption | Healthy drinker | 93 | 27.2 | 15 | 18.8 | 0.116 |
High risk drinker | 248 | 72.8 | 65 | 81.2 | Â | |
Smoking status | Non-smoker | 119 | 34.9 | 31 | 38.7 | 0.397 |
Ex-smoker | 121 | 35.5 | 22 | 27.5 | Â | |
Current smoker | 101 | 29.6 | 27 | 33.8 | Â | |
Episode of back pain | No | 109 | 31.9 | 36 | 45.0 | 0.027 |
Yes | 232 | 68.1 | 44 | 55.0 | Â | |