Background Previous studies of patients with neck pain have reported a high variability in prevalence of MRI findings of disc degeneration, disc herniation etc. This is most likely due to small and heterogenous study populations. Reasons for only including small study samples could be the high cost and time-consuming procedures of having radiologists coding the MRIs. Other methods for extracting reliable imaging data should therefore be explored. The objectives of this study were 1) to examine inter-rater reliability among a group of chiropractic master students in extracting information about cervical MRI-findings from radiologists´ narrative reports, and 2) to describe the prevalence of MRI findings in the cervical spine among different age groups in patients above age 18 with neck pain. Method Adult patients with neck pain (with or without arm pain) seen in a public hospital department between 2011 and 2014 who had an MRI of the cervical spine were identified in the patient registry ‘SpineData’. MRI-findings were extracted and quantified from radiologists’ narrative reports by second-year chiropractic master students based on a set of coding rules for the process. The inter-rater reliability was quantified with Kappa statistics and the prevalence of the MRI findings were calculated. Results In total, narrative MRI reports from 611 patients were included. The patients had a mean age of 52 years (SD 13; range 19–87) and 63% were women. The inter-observer agreement in coding MRI findings ranged from substantial (κ = 0.78, CI: 0.33–1.00) to almost perfect (κ = 0.98, CI: 0.95–1.00). The most prevalent MRI findings were foraminal stenosis (77%), uncovertebral arthrosis (74%) and disc degeneration (67%) while the least prevalent findings were nerve root compromise (2%) and Modic changes type 2 (6%). Modic type 1 was mentioned in 25% of the radiologists’ reports. The prevalence of all findings increased with age, except disc herniation which was most prevalent for patients in their forties. Conclusion MRI-findings from radiologists’ narrative reports can reliably be extracted by chiropractic master students with a minimum of training. Degenerative findings in the cervical spine were most commonly found at levels C5/C6 and C6/C7 and increased with age. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1186/s12998-019-0233-3) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Purpose To conduct a non-responder analysis on a musculoskeletal (MSK) electronic questionnaire. Methods Individuals aged 18 years and older, diagnosed with diabetes mellitus (DM), and attended an ambulatory DM clinic formed the sample frame. They were invited to complete an electronic musculoskeletal (MSK) conditions and symptoms questionnaire booklet using a secured electronic email system. Individuals whose secured email box was not active at the time were discarded. Using the Central Person Registry number, a unique number assigned to all Danish residents, we linked the sample frame to different registries to learn more about non-responders. Non-responders were either individuals who did not respond to a single question and those who responded “No” to the first question about willing to participate. We calculated descriptive statistics for each characteristic. Univariate logistic regression models were conducted to determine the relationship between each characteristic and non-responder status. Results The response rate was 36% (n = 3812). Individuals with type 2 DM (OR 2.0 (95% CI 1.8–2.2)), secondary DM (1.9 (1.3–2.8)) or unspecified DM (2.1 (1.8–2.4)) were more likely to be non-responders than individuals with Type 1 DM. Also, individuals aged 70–79 (1.3 (1.1–1.6)) and 80 years and older (5.9 (4.5–7.7)) were more likely to be non-responders than 18–29 years old individuals. However, individuals aged 40–49 (1.5 (1.2–1.8)), 50–59 (1.5 (1.3–1.8)) or 60–69 (1.4 (1.1–1.6)) were more likely to be responders than 18–29 years old individuals. Individuals with Charlson Comorbidity Index (CCI) of 1 (2.0 (1.3.2.9) or CCI of 2 (1.7 (1.1–2.5) were more likely to be responders than individuals with a CCI of 0. Lastly, individuals who were currently outside of the workforce (1.6 (2.4–2.9) or had unknown/missing socioeconomic status (3.9 (2.8–5.3) were more likely to be non-responders than individuals who were working. Conclusion Although we did find a non-response bias, this cohort will be an important source to determine the prevalence and consequences of MSK conditions in a secondary care DM population.