Cheru Kore, Teklemariam Gultie and Yetnayet Sahle
Background: Back pain, also known as backache, is pain felt in the back. The back is divided into neck pain (cervical), middle back pain (thoracic), lower back pain (lumbar) or coccydynia (tailbone or sacral pain) based on the segment affected. The lumbar area is the most common area affected. Episodes of back pain may be acute, sub-acute, or chronic depending on the duration. The pain may be characterized as a dull ache, shooting or piercing pain, or a burning sensation. Discomfort can radiate into the arms and hands as well as the legs or feet, and may include numbness, or weakness in the legs and arms. Nurses are the front line health professional who spent most of their time caring for their patients. Due to prolonged standing due to long procedures and caring debilitated patients’ nurses are prone for low back pain (LBP). This pain affects their quality of life and sometimes may force them to absent from their job. However, there is no sufficient information on the prevalence of low back pain and its associated factors in the study area.
Objective: The main objective of this study is to assess the prevalence of low back pain and associated factors among nurses, working in private hospitals in Bole sub city, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Methods: Institutional based cross-sectional study was conducted among 196 nurses from April 20 to May 20, 2020 by use of simple random selection. Data was entered to SPSS version 21 for analysis. Descriptive analysis was performed for each variable. Association between dependent and independent variables was examined using bi variable and multivariable logistic regression models with 95% confidence interval. Level of significance was determined at p-value less than 0.05.
Result: Over half (56.3%) of the respondents were females; the mean (standard deviation) age of the nurses was 28 (± 7.38) years. The overall prevalence of low back pain was 67.2%. About 33.9% of the nurses reported that they had sleeping disturbances. The odds of low back pain among nurses who had a sleeping disorder were 57% less likely (AOR=0.43; 95% CI: 0.23, 0.82) compared with nurses who had normal sleep.
Conclusion: About 33.9% of the nurses reported that they had sleeping disturbances. Low back pain among hospital nurses was almost comparable at 79.9% and 70.7%, respectively. Thus, addressing work-related and individual factors are essential to decrease the burden of the problem.
