Socio-Demographic Profile of Low Back Pain in Health Care Workers of a Tertiary Care Center of Eastern India - A Cross-Sectional Study.

Abstract

Background and aim: Majority of the healthcare workers (HCWs) globally have low back pain (LBP) at some point of time of their lives, resulting in activity limitation and sick leave. HCWs are exposed to the burden of long duty hours, poor posture, inadequate sleep hours, stress, etc., which ultimately leads to the occurrence of LBP. This study aimed to assess different factors influencing LBP among HCWs for early prevention and environmental modification.

Methods: This cross-sectional observational study was conducted in a tertiary center in Eastern India. The study population was all HCWs presently working in the author's institute. Self-administered questionnaire in English and Hindi was used via Google Forms for data collection. Hard copy of the form was used for the participants unable to fill online form. The association of different variables with other influencing variables was tested using non-parametric Kruskal-Wallis, Mann-Whitney, and Chi-square tests.

Result: Among 330 participants, the majority belonged to the age group of 30-39 years (47.6%), and the male-female ratio was 3:2. The significant association of pain intensity was found with gender (more in females, P = 0.001), body mass index (P = 0.001), job profile (less in doctors and paramedics, P = 0.021), comorbidity (maximum with hypothyroidism, P < 0.001), job satisfaction (less among much satisfied cases, P = 0.004), footwear (more pain among chappal wearers, P = 0.006), and vitamin D level (more pain in cases of low vitamin D level, P = 0.032).

Conclusion: This study identified an association of increased pain intensity with female gender, both low and high BMI, nursing job, less job satisfaction, improper footwear usage, etc. The chronicity was associated with higher age, BMI, lower or no exercise, comorbidity, and low serum vitamin D.