Evaluation of prevalence of low back pain and affecting factors in Birjand University of Medical Sciences in 2016

Background: Low back pain is one of the serious health problems in communities. It is the third common cause for medical visits after upper respiratory tract and headache. Based on the studies conducted in this regard, low back pain has different distribution in various kinds of job groups, and most researchers argue that this problem is correlated with job type of individuals. Accordingly, the present study was conducted to evaluate the prevalence of low back pain and affecting factors in employees of Birjand University of Medical Sciences in 2016. Methods: This descriptive-analytical study was conducted on all employees in the deputies of Birjand University of Medical Sciences in 2016. The data were collected using Quebec standard questionnaire and analyzed using SPSS19 software and descriptive and analytical statistics of Mann-Whitney, Logistic regression, Kruskal-Wallis and Spearman at a significant level of α=0.05. Results: 216 people (120 females and 96 males) were examined in this study. Out of 216 people, 184 were married and 32 were single. The mean age of employees was 36.36 ± 8.27 years, their mean weight was 70.04 ± 13.66 kg, their mean BMI was 13.4±43.25, their mean hours of sitting behind desk at workplace was 6.25±1.56 hours, and their mean low back pain score was 19.7 ± 17.15. The highest age group was between 30 and 40 years and 60.6% of them had a history of low back pain. Mann-Whitney test showed a significant difference between the mean scores of low back pain in terms of gender (p=0.008) and history of low back pain in a person (p 0.001). However, this test did not show any significant relationship with other demographic variables. Based on the Spearman correlation test, there was a significant correlation between mean scores of low back pain and mean of employment history (r=0.1, p=0.04). Based on logistic regression test, a significant relationship was found between gender (OR=2.45, CI=195.25, 4.83) and low back pain (OR=10.53, CI=495.24, 26.13). Conclusions: The results of the study showed that as the employment history of the employee increases, their low back pain also increases. Additionally, a small percentage of employees used stretching exercises between their working hours. Thus, given their tendency to manage educational classes, it is necessary to provide educational interventions for them to perform physical activities in order to prevent low back pain in the employees.