Low Back Pain Intensity and Quality of Life among Patients referred to a Pain Clinic in Iran

Low Back Pain (LBP) is a major contributor to disability worldwide which affected the  Quality of Life (QOL). This study aimed to determine the correlation between pain intensity  and QOL in patients with chronic LBP.

In this study, 31 patients with LBP who referred to a pain clinic in  Sari , the center city of Mazandaran province of Iran were selected through simple random  sampling based on inclusion/exclusion criteria. Data collection was done using a demographic  questionnaire, Visual Analog Scale (VAS), and Short Form Quality of Life (SF-36). To analyze  the data, descriptive / analytical statistics were used through SPSS version 23.

Of the total number of patients, 51.62% were female (n=16), and 48.38% were male (n=15). The majority of the participants (N=22; 70.97%) aged greater than 60 years old. The result showed the majority of the participants (N= 17) of patients (54.85%) had moderate pain. There was a significant correlation between pain intensity and all dimensions of QOL except social functioning.

This study revealed that low back pain could decrease physical and mental functioning of the suffered patients. Although, doing more studies with larger sample and objective measurements, applying different approaches to decrease low back pain is guaranteed.