Sleep Quality, Quality of Life and Insomnia Among Patients with Chronic Low Back Pain Compared to Normal Individuals

Abstract

Objective: Low back pain may affect various aspects of quality of life including sleep. There are some reports about prevalence of sleep disorders in patients with chronic low back pain. The present study was conducted to estimate sleep quality, quality of life, and insomnia in patients with chronic low back pain compared to age and sex matched control group. Methods: The present case-control study was performed on 140 persons (70 patients with chronic low back pain and 70 persons as control group). They were asked to fill Pittsburg questionnaire for evaluation of sleep quality, SF-36 questionnaire for evaluation of quality of life, and insomnia questionnaire. Also, the severity of their back pain was assessed using visual analogue scale (VAS). Results: Mean age of the studied persons was 49.88±11 and 48.33±10 years in the case and control groups, respectively (P-value>0.05). Thirty one persons of each group were male. Individuals in the case group had worse sleep quality (correlation coefficient 0.478 with severity of pain), more severe insomnia (correlation coefficient 0.386 with severity of pain), and lower quality of life (correlation coefficient 0.665 with severity of pain) compared to the control group. Conclusion: Results of the present study showed that patients with chronic low back pain have higher prevalence of insomnia, lower quality of life, and worse sleep quality when judged against control group. Also, this case-control study clearly showed the magnitude of the relationship between them.