Prevalence and risk factors associated with low back pain among nurses in a tertiary care hospital in south India

Abstract

Background: Low back pain (LBP) is an important public health problem affecting the nurses population worldwide and is one of the most important cause of work-related disability. Low back pain will result in serious physical, cognitive, sensory, emotional, mental and developmental obstacles for nurses. Prevalence and risk factors for low back pain among nurses in a tertiary care hospital in Indian context is unclear. Knowing the risk factors contributing to the prevalence of low back pain at the hospital will assist the nursing and hospital managers to plan appropriate interventions to minimize the occurrence. Hence this study was undertaken to assess the Prevalence and Risk Factors Associated with Low Back Pain among Nurses in a Tertiary care Hospital in South India.Methods: 84 Nurses working in a tertiary care teaching hospital were included in the study and data was collected using a validated backache assessment questionnaire and severity of backache was assessed by Oswestry disability index (ODI). Data was analysed using SPSS Software Version 22, mean SD was repeated for necessary outcome variable, Fishers exact test p was performed to check whether there is any significance between low back pain and factors affecting it. Results: The prevalence of low back pain among nurses was 73.8%, however 83.3% among these have minimum disability as per ODI score. The activities that cause LBA in the order of decreasing frequency are standing for long duration of time (66.7%, correlation with ODI score p value=0.023), lifting patients (61.9%, p value=0.001), Moving trolly (47.6%, p value=0.051), long duration of file works (45.2%,p value=0.031) which in turn causes prolonged sitting. The nurses in night shifts with overtine duty has higher incidence of LBP. Height of chair has an effect of low back pain in 40.4% (p value 0.010). Among nurses working in different wards, Medicine, orthopaedics and intensive care unit (ICU) has the greatest prevalence of LBP. Conclusions: Our study shows that prevalence of low back pain is high among nurses. Standing for long duration of time, lifting patients, moving of trolly, sitting for long duration in high height chair for file wor, and activities that involves bending or twisting are associated with increased prevalence of low back pain. The nurses who are working in areas like Medicine, Orthopaedics and ICU had higher prevalence of low back pain.