Abstract
ObjectiveTo measure the frequency of depression, anxiety, and stress and its association with other variables i.e., age, gender, and off work hours among low back pain (LBP) patients attending an orthopedic outpatient department (OPD) at a private hospital in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia (SA).MethodologyThis is the cross-sectional study, which was done in a secondary care hospital of Jeddah, SA. Data was collected between the periods of 2017-2018. All patients who attended orthopaedic OPD with LBP were included in this study and were requested to fill the Depression, Anxiety, Stress Scale-21 (DASS-21) questionnaire. The gathered data were analyzed through the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 23 (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL). One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to compare the mean difference in depression, anxiety, and stress scores between genders, age, and number of leaves from their work.ResultsThree hundred sixty patients came to the orthopedic OPD with the primary complaint of LBP, 318 (88.3%) were male while 42 (11.7%) were female. The study showed that among these patients 24 (6.7%) subjects were suffering from the depression while 136 (37.8%) from anxiety and 167 (46.4%) from stress. Linear regression analysis showed that depression was negatively associated with age and stress was negatively associated with the off work because of the severity. ConclusionIn conclusion, the findings of this study revealed that LBP and mental distress are related to each other. This finding urges physicians to check and treat the mental distress in patients with LBP for a better outcome.
Highlights
Low back pain (LBP) is one of the most common diseases being experienced by about 70% of people during their lifetime
Three hundred sixty patients came to the orthopedic outpatient department (OPD) with the primary complaint of LBP, 318 (88.3%) were male while 42 (11.7%) were female
Linear regression analysis showed that depression was negatively associated with age and stress was negatively associated with the off work because of the severity
Summary
Low back pain (LBP) is one of the most common diseases being experienced by about 70% of people during their lifetime. A recent study in Saudi Arabia (SA) found back pain top among ten frequent diagnoses in an orthopedic clinic [2]. Back pain affects the quality of life in patients and imposes a high economic encumbrance on individual and society. A plethora of evidence has demonstrated that back pain often co-occurs with psychological disturbance including depression, anxiety, and stress, which undesirably affects the outcomes of treatment [3]. Investigators proved that improvement of the anxiety and depression status can help individuals control and manage pain in LBP [4,5]
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