For clinicians

Painful musculoskeletal conditions like back pain and osteoarthritis cause more disability in the general population than any other health conditions. Poorer communities and individuals are often the hardest hit. In order to have a suitably ‘joined up’ response to this challenge we need accurate and meaningful joined up information on musculoskeletal health, risk, and care in local populations. This is what our study will try to address.

We will invite adults aged 35 years and over in North Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent to complete a questionnaire that collects information on pain and its effects on people, with a particular focus on disability and work. We will examine the extent of health inequalities in these and in the key social and behavioural risk factors that are believed to determine them. People will have the option of completing the survey either online or by postal return. If people agree, we will link their questionnaire responses with information held in their medical records so that we can piece together information on the care that people are receiving. Potential participants will be registered with one of 30 participating general practices across North Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent, particularly those serving more deprived and ethnically diverse areas, that have preferably been part of a linked MIDAS-GP study.