Prevalence of Sexual Disability and its Relationship with Pain Intensity, Quality of life and Psychological Distress Among Individuals with Chronic Low Back Pain in Nigeria: A Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

Nigeria has been reported as having the highest prevalence of low back pain (LBP) in Africa. Despite this, sexual disability among people with LBP in Nigeria is sparsely reported. To examine the prevalence of sexual disability and its relationship with pain intensity, quality of life and psychological distress among individuals with chronic low back pain (CLBP) in Nigeria. A descriptive cross-sectional study of individuals with CLBP was conducted. The Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) was used to assess pain intensity while sexual disability was assessed using the Oswestry Disability Index domain 8 (ODI-8). Quality of life was assessed using the Short-form Health Survey (SF-36) questionnaire and the 42-item Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale (DASS-42) was used to measure psychological distress. A total of 375 participants (mean age = 41.4 years, SD = 5.67) with CLBP participated in the study. The majority of the participants have a sexual disability (357, 95.2%), with 33.1% (124) of them reporting that their sex life was severely restricted by pain and 17.9% (67) reporting that pain prevents any sex life at all. Females have a lower quality of life and higher levels of sexual disability, pain, and psychological distress than males (p < 0.05). Sexual disability was strongly correlated with pain intensity, quality of life, and psychological distress (p < 0.05).The findings of this study indicate that there was a high prevalence of sexual disability among individuals with CLBP in Nigeria and this was strongly correlated with pain, quality of life and psychological distress.