the prevalence of low back pain among nurses working in poursina hospital in rasht, iran

Objective: low back pain is the most common skeletal disorder worldwide that 50%to 80% of people experience it at least once in their lifetime. physical and psychologicalfactors in the work environment can relatively contribute to low back pain. in this study,we examined the prevalence of low back pain and influential factors in its developmentamong nursing staff.methods: in this cross-sectional study we assessed the prevalence of low back pain amongnurses working in poursina hospital, rasht, iran, during march and april 2012. demographicdata and information on the status of skeletal pain, as well as, associated factors werecollected using a pre-designed check list. data were analyzed using spss version 16.results: a total of 350 nurses with a mean age of 32.00 ± 8.24 years (minimum 22 andmaximum 56 years) were studied (90.3% female). 246 participants (70.3%) had a history oflow back pain. there was no significant difference between gender and the incidence oflow back pain, (p = 0.286). 96 participants (27.4%) aged 27 to 31 had the highest rate of lowback pain and 11 participants (3.1%) aged 52 to 56 were the least frequent age group. lowback pain significantly differed by age (p = 0.001), body mass index (bmi) (p = 0.222), andphysical activity (p = 0.050).conclusion: the results of this study showed a prevalence of 70% for low back pain amongnurses working in poursina hospital in rasht, in gilan province. age, bmi, and physicalactivity were significantly associated with the prevalence of low back pain. however,gender, occupation, marital status, smoking, family history, frequency of lifting heavythings, work experience, and workplace did not show a significant relationship.