A cross-sectional study on the profession-specific prevalence rates of back pain symptoms was conducted including N = 3332 nurses as the exposed group and N = 1720 office clerks as a control group. Only participants who had never changed from an exposed to an unexposed profession or vice versa, were included for the results presented here. Severity of symptoms was assessed, dividing into low back pain on the one hand, and lumbago-sciatica/sciatica on the other; frequency of pain episodes was measured using lifetime- and point-prevalence, in all these four combinations of severity and frequency the prevalence rates among nurses were clearly and significantly higher. Multivariate analyses revealed that profession is the most important risk factor among many others that were tested. Estimation of the prevalence rate for the heaviest symptom, the point-prevalence of lumbago-sciatica/sciatica, showed that about 4 out of 5 cases among nursing staff can be attributed to their profession. On the background of this high attributable risk the acceptance rate for LBP diseases of suspected occupational origin among nursing staff by statutory occupational health insurance bodies appears much too low.