Table 1

Sex-specific meta-analysis of prospective cohort studies on the association between leisure time physical activity and low back pain

Characteristic	Moderate versus low activity					High versus low activity					Active versus inactive
	No of studies	Sample	RR	95% CI	I² (%)	No of studies	Sample	RR	95% CI	I² (%)	No of studies	Sample	RR	95% CI	I² (%)
Men and women
Low back pain in the past month	3	3710	0.93	0.80 to 1.08	11	4	3715	0.85	0.53 to 1.37	87	5	5230	0.98	0.84 to 1.14	66
Low back pain in the past 6–12 months	10	7578	0.96	0.87 to 1.07	0	11	8052	0.90	0.77 to 1.05	51	16	34 546	0.97	0.92 to 1.01	46
Frequent low back pain	0					0					2	1383	0.77	0.65 to 0.91	0
Chronic low back pain	3	34 419	0.86	0.79 to 0.94	0	3	34 419	0.70	0.48 to 1.03	52	7	49 532	0.86	0.78 to 0.95	53
Men
Low back pain in the past 6–12 months	4	2587	0.87	0.71 to 1.08	0	4	2587	0.90	0.73 to 1.10	11	7	5708	0.96	0.89 to 1.04	13
Chronic low back pain	2	16 136	0.88	0.77 to 0.99	0	2	16 136	0.68	0.46 to 0.99	38	3	20 382	0.84	0.74 to 0.94	34
Women
Low back pain in the past 6–12 months	3	1550	1.02	0.81 to 1.28	0	3	1550	0.85	0.56 to 1.30	71	6	16 732	0.99	0.93 to 1.06	63
Chronic low back pain	2	17 668	0.84	0.74 to 0.96	0	2	17 668	0.82	0.55 to 1.20	47	3	20 115	0.89	0.81 to 0.98	5