has the prevalence of invalidating musculoskeletal pain changed over the last 15 years 19932006 a spanish populationbased survey unlabelled the aim of the current study was to estimate the prevalence and time trend of invalidating musculoskeletal pain in the spanish population and its association with sociodemographic factors lifestyle habits selfreported health status and comorbidity with other diseases analyzing data from 19932006 spanish national health surveys snhs we analyzed individualized data taken from the snhs conducted in 1993 n 20707 2001 n 21058 2003 n 21650 and 2006 n 29478 invalidating musculoskeletal pain was defined as pain suffered from the preceding 2 weeks that decreased main working activity or freetime activity by at least half a day we analyzed sociodemographic characteristics selfperceived health status lifestyle habits and comorbid conditions using multivariate logistic regression models overall the prevalence of invalidating musculoskeletal pain in spanish adults was 61 95 ci 5764 in 1993 73 95 ci 6977 in 2001 55 95 ci 5159 in 2003 and 64 95 ci 668 in 2006 the prevalence of invalidating musculoskeletal pain among women was almost twice that of men in every year p 05 the multivariate analysis showed that occupational status unemployed sleep 8 hoursday and having any accident in the preceding year were significantly associated in both gender with a higher likelihood of suffering from invalidating musculoskeletal pain among spanish adults within men other predictors of invalidating musculoskeletal pain were to be married and lower educational level whereas in women were age of 4564 years old or 189 95 ci 13227 obesity or 123 95 ci 106142 a sedentary lifestyle or 123 95 ci 106142 and presence of comorbid chronic diseases or 132 95 ci 114153 further worse selfreported health status was also related to a greater prevalence of invalidating musculoskeletal pain or 688 95 562840 men or 724 95 611857 women finally we found that the prevalence of invalidating musculoskeletal pain increased from 1993 to 2001 for both men or 131 95 108158 and women or 119 95 103139 with no significant increase from the remaining surveys our results suggest that invalidating musculoskeletal pain deserves an increased awareness among health professionals more educational programs which address postural hygiene physical exercise and how to prevent obesity and sedentary lifestyle habits should be provided by public health servicesperspective this populationbased study indicates that invalidating musculoskeletal pain that reduces main working activity is a public health problem in spain the prevalence of invalidating musculoskeletal pain was higher in women than in men and associated to lower income poor sleeping worse selfreported health status and other comorbid conditions further the prevalence of invalidating musculoskeletal pain increased from 1993 to 2001 but remained stable from the last years 2001 to 2006