Among people with lower-extremity pain in combination with back pain, lumbar stenosis as the cause is two times more likely in those older than 70 years of age while in those younger than 60 years it is less than half as likely. The character of the pain is also useful for diagnosis. When the discomfort does not occur while seated, the likelihood of lumbar spinal stenosis increases considerably, around 7.4 times. Other features increasing the likelihood of lumbar stenosis are improvement in symptoms on bending forward (6.4 times), pain that occurs in both buttocks or legs (6.3 times), and the presence of neurogenic claudication (3.7 times). On the other hand, the absence of neurogenic claudication makes lumbar stenosis much less likely as the explanation for the pain.