Assessment of the Association between Hypovitaminosis D and Chronic Low Back Pain in South Punjab

Abstract

Objective: To assess the relationship between hypovitaminosis D and chronic low back pain in South Punjab. Materials and Methods: Retrospective research was done from January 2021 to June 2022. 173 chronic nonspecific low back pain patients presenting in outpatient clinics were included in our study. Two groups were made of all patients, one was vitamin-D level deficient, and the other was a vitamin-D normal group. The blood level of 30 ng/ml of vitamin D was taken as normal. Chronic Low back pain status was analyzed by VAS score. All the demographic data of patients were recorded. The relationship between vitamin D and VAS score was assessed by the spearman coefficient and p <0.05 was taken as significant. Results: The majority of patients had a mean age of 36.45 ± 21 years, were female preponderance, married, and vegetarians with a mean sun exposure time of about 2 hours. In group 1, the vitamin D level was 13.41 ± 3.8 and in group 2 vitamin D was 38.71 ± 5.8 with p value< 0.0001. Spearman rho coefficient was used to assess the relationship between vitamin D and pain score. The result was a negative correlation between these 2 variables (r=-0.572) and p <0.0001. Conclusion This research work showed the significant probability of association between vitamin D level and patients having nonspecific chronic low back pain. There was a negative association between vitamin D level and VAS score of patients having chronic low back pain.