Prevalence and pattern of back pain among pregnant women attending ante-natal clinics in selected health care facilities

Abstract

Back pain is (BP) is recognized as an important problem in pregnancy. Theobjectives of this study were to examine the prevalence and pattern of back pain (BP) in pregnancy. A survey of 2,187 pregnant women attending ante-natal clinics in selected Medical facilities in Ibadan and Ogbomoso, Nigeria was carried out using pre-tested close-ended questionnaire. Information on prevalence, pattern and characteristics of back pain in pregnancy were obtained. Data obtained was analyzed using both descriptive and inferential statistics of mean, standard deviation, and inferential statistics of independent t-tests and chi-square tests. One thousand and eight (52.5%) of the 1919 included subjects had back pain in pregnancy. The mean age of those with and without back painwas 26.8 ± 5.3 and 27.1 ± 5.4 years respectively. Mean number of pregnancy was higher in subjects with back pain than those without back pain. The pain site among the 1008 subjects with back pain was low back in 669 subjects (66.4%), posterior pelvic in 242 subjects (24.0%) and high back in 97 subjects (9.6%). Among the subjects with back pain, 315 (31.3%) and 53 (5.3%) were in their first and sixth pregnancies respectively. Postural modification relieved the back painin about 50% of the subjects across the three back pain groups duringpregnancy. It was concluded that back pain is a common and real complaint in pregnancy. It is therefore recommended that rather than dismiss it as trivial, back pain in pregnancy should be attended to as part of ante-natal care. (Afr. J. Biomed. Res. 9: 149 – 156)Keywords: Back pain; Pattern; Pregnancy