Chronic Low Back Pain Frequency and its Risk Factors in Clinical and Office Staff of Hospitals

Some occupations have risk factors for chronic low back pain; clinical staff of hospitals are good examples for encountering many risk factors yet office staff encounter a few or may be at risk of unknown factors for occupational low back pain.

The objective of this study was to compare chronic low back pain frequency and risk factors between clinical and office staff.

A cross-sectional study on clinical and office staff at hospitals was done by completing a questionnaire with interviews and a checklist. Data were analyzed with the SPSS software version 16 using chi-2, T-test and regression with significance level of P < 0.05.

No significant difference was observed between the two groups in terms of chronic low back pain; frequency of low back pain in clinical staff was 18% (18 individuals) and in office staff this was 17% (17 individuals) (P < 0.05). Chronic low back pain in the clinical group might be related to flexion and extension, twisting, pulling or pushing, carrying, handling of patients, and sitting (P value < 0.001), and in office staff it might be related to flexion and extension, twisting and long durations of time spent driving (P value < 0.001).

Frequency of low back pain was not significantly different between clinical and office staff. Chronic low back pain in clinical staff was related to work while in office staff it was related to some occupational and non-occupational risk factors.