Co-morbidities of Myofascial Low Back Pain Among Information Technology Professionals

Abstract

Co-morbidity can be defined as the presence of one or more disorders (or diseases) in addition to a primary disease or disorder, or the effect of such additional disorders or diseases. The underlying basis for such studies is that if there is a presence of two or more diseases simultaneously, they may have a common origin. Myofascial Pain Syndrome (MPS) of the lower back or Myofascial Low Back Pain (MLBP) is one of the commonest WRMSD noted among IT professionals. The aim of this study was to identify the prevalence of MLBP as a WRMSD and its co-morbidities among IT professionals. The data was collected from 8500 IT professionals from a single IT company who visited the on-site clinics situated at their office campuses in 8 cities in an Industrially Developing Country. All the reports from the year 2005 to 2017 which were maintained in a database were reviewed. The study participants were predominantly males (78%). The mean age of the male and female subjects were 33.30 ± 5.99 years and 27.38 ± 5.59 years respectively. 44% of the population used laptops, 42% desktops and 14% both. 48.5% of the participants had MLBP. MLBP was the third common WRMSD, following MPS of neck and Thoracic Outlet Syndrome. The present study revealed that MPS of neck, Thoracic Outlet Syndrome, Fibromyalgia Syndrome and Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome were found to be co morbid among IT professionals with MLBP.