Abstract
Worldwide, low back pain is common and linked with many risk factors. There is a lack of studies in the Saudi Arabian community on low back pain prevalence and risk factors. Therefore, the present research will investigate the prevalence of low back pain in the middle-aged and elderly community population and examine the risk factors contributing to low back pain in Saudi Arabia. The present paper is a cross-sectional study of the community living in Riyadh and the surrounding areas in Saudi Arabia. Data were collected between October 2019 and April 2020 via trained research assistants. A total of 276 participants were included in the analysis. The prevalence of low back pain was 27.9% (n = 77) among the participants included in this study. All participants reported low back pain severity with a mean of 4.35 ± 2.19 on the pain rating scale. Older age, arthritis, hypertension, anemia, osteoporosis, and a history of fractures were all associated with having LBP. Low back pain is highly prevalent in the Saudi community adult population living in Riyadh and its surrounding areas. More than a fourth of the sample reported experiencing back pain. The study outlines several modifiable risk factors (BMI, education, employment status, marital status, and smoking status) and unmodifiable risk factors (arthritis, hypertension, anemia, osteoporosis, and a history of fractures) associated with low back pain in the study sample.
Highlights
Around 50–80% of individuals suffer from Low back pain (LBP) at some point in their lives [1,2]
Only aging, the presence of arthritis, hypertension, anemia, osteoporosis, and a history of fractures were significantly different between people with and without a low back
The results showed that arthritis was significantly associated with increased lower back pain severity (B = 1.31, 95% confidence interval (95% CI) (0.51, 2.12), p = 0.001) after controlling the other covariates, including age, sex, and body mass index (BMI) status, education, employment status, and smoking
Summary
Around 50–80% of individuals suffer from Low back pain (LBP) at some point in their lives [1,2]. It is estimated that people over the age of 18 who can work are most susceptible to LBP, which is, globally, the most critical reason for disability [3,4]. The burden of LBP stemming from work-related ergonomic exposures was projected to result in about 21.8 million disability-adjusted life years (DALYs), in 2010 (95% confidence interval (CI) 14.5–30.5) [3]. Everyone will suffer from lower back discomfort at some point in their lives [2]. The prevalence of the 1 year period generally occurs in adults worldwide and increases when one reaches the middle-age period.
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