the high prevalence of symptomatic degenerative lumbar osteoarthritis in chinese adults a populationbased study study design a populationbased studyobjective to study the prevalence and features of symptomatic degenerative lumbar osteoarthritis in adultssummary of background data lumbar osteoarthritis adversely affects individuals and is a heavy burden there are limited data on the prevalence of lumbar osteoarthritismethods a representative multistage sample of adults was collected symptomatic degenerative lumbar osteoarthritis was diagnosed by clinical symptoms physical examinations and imaging examinations personal information was obtained by facetoface interview information included the place of residence age sex income type of medical insurance education level body mass index habits of smoking and drinking type of work working posture duration of the same working posture during the day mode of transportation exposure to vibration and daily amount of sleep crude and adjusted prevalence was calculated the features of populations were analyzed by multivariable logistic regression in total and subgroup populationsresults the study included 3859 adults the crude and adjusted prevalence of lumbar osteoarthritis was 902 and 890 respectively there was no significant difference in the prevalence of lumbar osteoarthritis between urban suburban and rural populations 766 997 and 944 p 0100 the prevalence of lumbar osteoarthritis was higher in females 1005 than in males 91 p 0021 the prevalence of lumbar osteoarthritis increased with increasing age obese people body mass index 28 kgm those engaged in physical work those who maintained the same work posture for 1 to 19 hours per day those who were exposed to vibration during daily work and those who got less than 7 hours of sleep per day had a higher prevalence these features differed by subgroupconclusion this study established epidemiological baseline data for degenerative lumbar osteoarthritis in adults especially for people younger than 45 years lumbar osteoarthritis is epidemic in beijing and will become a more severe problem in aging society different populations have different features that require targeted interventions