The purpose of this study was to determine the prevalence of back pain and neck pain and their relationship with the quality of life in the Croatian general population. This was a cross-sectional study using home-based face-to-face interviews of 1030 participants (51.6% females) 15 years or older. Back and neck pain frequencies were assessed using single items and quality of life using the Short Form Survey and Satisfaction with Life Scale. Analysis of covariance was conducted, where back pain or neck pain frequency was used as the categorical predictor; physical component summary or mental component summary, as the dependent variable; and age, body mass index, and physical activity level, as covariates. The prevalence of back pain was 66.3% (95% confidence interval [CI], 62.3%-70.3%) and 62.9% (95% CI, 58.7%-67.2%) in females and males, respectively. The prevalence of neck pain was 58.0% (95% CI, 53.8%-62.2%) for females and 53.6 (95% CI, 49.2%-58.0%) for males. Differences between men and women were not significant (P>.05). Adjusted mean values for physical component summary and mental component summary were substantially lower in participants who reported back or neck pain often/almost always compared with those without pain. Differences ranged from 8.11 to 11.86 points (95% CI, 5.54-13.99) and from 9.61 to 10.99 points (95% CI, 7.35-13.45) in females and males, respectively. The findings of this study showed that back and neck pain are highly prevalent and negatively related to quality of life in the Croatian general population. These data might raise the awareness of local government health authorities and lead to improvements in health care service for people with back and neck pain.

Background: Online information about PCOS lacks reliability for patients seeking information about the disease. Thus, we aimed to perform an updated analysis of the quality, accuracy, and readability of patient information on PCOS available online. Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study using the top five Google Trends search terms in English associated with PCOS, including “symptoms,” “treatment,” “test,” “pregnancy,” and “causes.” Five separate searches in Bing, Yahoo, and Google were performed to obtain the first 10 unique webpages for each term that was categorized as commercial, non-profit organization, scientific resources, or private foundation. We used the 16-item DISCERN with Likert-responses (minimum 1, maximum 5) where the total is 80 and lowest is 16, clarity with the 32-item EQIP, where responses of no = 0 and yes = 1 (minimum 0, maximum 32), and accuracy scores with 1 denoting poor and 5 completely accurate information; low scores of each corresponded to poorly reported information. We assessed readability with Flesch-Kincaid reading ease index, where higher scores correspond to reading ease, and lower grades correspond to easier readability with Flesch-Kincaid grade level, Gunning-Fog, Coleman-Liau index, automated readability index, New Dale-Chall Readability, and simple measure of gobbledygook. We additionally assessed word and sentence characteristics. We used Kruskal-Wallis test to compare scores according to webpage categories. Results: Out of 150 webpages, most were commercial (n = 85, 57%), followed by non-profit organizations (n = 44, 29%), scientific resources (n = 13, 9%) and private foundations (n = 6, 4%). Google webpages had higher median DISCERN score ([Md] = 47.0) than Bing ([Md] = 42.0) and Yahoo ([Md] = 43.0) webpages; P = 0.023. No difference in EQIP scores according to search engine was found (P = 0.524). Predominantly, webpages from private foundations had higher DISCERN and EQIP scores, although comparisons were not statistically significant (P = 0.456) and P = 0.653.). Accuracy and readability were similar across search engines and webpage categories (P = 0.915, range 5.0–5.0) and (P = 0.208, range 4.0–5.0). Conclusions: Quality and clarity of the data were fair according to search engine and category. Accuracy of information was high, showing that the public may encounter accurate information about PCOS. However, the readability of the information was high, reflecting a need for more readable resources about PCOS.