Prevalence of life-time back pain in Iran: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Nowadays، Back pain as a multi-causal phenomenon is considered a major problem in most communities. It may be caused as a result of various factors such as: psychological، social and ergonomic sicknesses. There is no available exact statistical report on the prevalence of back pain in Iran. The aim of this study was to estimate the-life time prevalence of back pain in Iran using systematic review besides meta-analysis. Method of analysis: Twenty research papers were obtained using the keywords «prevalence of low-back pain and back pain» through the nationally available databases of Magiran-MEDLIBE-SID-IRANMEDEX and English databases of Pubmed - Google Scholar-Scopus. Analysis of data''s was performed using meta-analysis (random model effects). Heterogeneity among the studies was investigated using the I2 test.

The prevalence of life-time back pain with a sample size of 5670 patients in all the 20 papers estimated 51 % (95% CI: 40/1-61/8). Prevalence of lifetime back pain among the medical staff with an average of 54/6% (95% CI: 42/9-66/3) was more than that the other social groups. The highest and lowest prevalence rates of back pain were observed in Mazandaran and Southern Iran، with an average of 84/1% and 13%، respectively. The highest prevalence went for the age groups of 15-45> with an average of 54/2% (95% CI: 42/6-65/9).

The findings indicated that back pain must be considered a social problem. Therefore the health authorities are asked to inform people through media and other communicative means of approaches to prevent and decrease the possible outbreak of such a disease.