Low back pain among nurses: Effect of psychological and occupational factors

Low back pain hazards have a very great impact on nurses’ quality of work and life; burdening the social and economical systems. In this study, the prevalence of low back of nurses in Amol was investigated and to study the impact of the physical and psychological factors on this condition. A cross-sectional study of 400 nurses sampled by census from the Amol hospitals. The modified Nordic questionnaire was administered. The prevalence of low back pain of the Amol nurses was 81% (95% CI 77% - 85%). Univaraite risk predictors include female gender and not exercising, with occupational hazards being lifting more than 5kg of weight, bending over to pick up objects from the floor and standing in the section longer than 2 hours; psychological factors of not being satisfied with colleagues, patient companions, supervisor, nursing occupation & doing jobs for patients; cannot tolerate people & no sense of insecurity. Upon multivariate analysis, only gender, not exercising and bending over to pick up objects from the floor were significant. Performing an exploratory stepwise logistic regression yielded the following predictors: not exercising, bending over to pick up objects from the floor, walking in section less than 2 hours and not satisfied doing jobs for patients. The findings showed that the prevalence of low pain back is rampant for the nurses in Amol being influenced by the various occupational & psychological factors. Interventional programs should be implemented to alleviate this problem

Low back pain, nurse, psychological