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Abstract:
AIMS & OBJECTIVES: Low
back pain (LBP) affects both older and younger adults. Medical colleges have
time-consuming curricula, possibly perpetuating a sedentary lifestyle causing
LBP among medical students. Literature survey has indicated
that no study was done or reported to our knowledge about LBP in medical
students at Dhaka, Bangladesh. The present descriptive cross-sectional study
was therefore designed and conducted to determine the prevalence of LBP and its
associated socio-demographic, ergonomics related and psychological factors among medical students from Dhanmondi area of Dhaka
city, Bangladesh;
STUDY DESIGN: Descriptive
cross-sectional study;
MATERIALS & METHODS: A
total of 200 medical students (gender: 109/54.5% male, 91/45.5% female; age
range:18-32 years, mean age ±SD: 23 ±7 years) were included in the study by purposive
sampling technique from different medical colleges in Dhanmondi area of Dhaka
City such as Bangladesh Medical College and Popular Medical College. LBP and
its associated factors were determined and assessed by using a standardized
structured questionnaire;
RESULTS: Among the 200
respondents, 110 (55.0%) had history of LBP with 55/108 (50.9%) male and 55/92
(59.7%) female students. The significantly associated factors for LBP were age
range (p=0.05), marital status (0.002), monthly income (p=0.001), BMI (p=0.024)
and time spend in medical college (0.001). Regarding pain, causes of pain
(p=0.001), nature of pain (p=0.001), frequency of pain (p=0.001) and treatment
for pain (p=0.004) were significant. Interestingly, ergonomic factors such as
posture during work and training and break from working were also associated with
LBP significantly (p=0.005). Stress feeling was significantly present in 72/110
(65%) respondents with LBP (p=0.001);
CONCLUSIONS: The
prevalence of LBP was 55% which was
related to socio-demographic, ergonomic and psychological factors in our
respondents. The preventive measures should, therefore, be taken into
consideration about all these related risk factors in order to reduce the
frequency of LBP in medical students and improve their working environment.
Follow-up study for recording this cohort’s LBP status in the future was warranted.
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