Prevalence of low back pain and associated disability among women between 45-65 in Ernakulam district Kerala: a community-based cross-sectional study

Background: Low back pain is one of the most common health issues encountered worldwide. About 80% of the global population would have had an episode of LBP at some stage of life. Many of the musculoskeletal disorders develop in middle age and can be chronic lasting years, necessitating contact with health care providers. Methods: A community-based cross-sectional study was conducted among 360 women in the age group of 45-65 years residing in Ernakulam (Kochi Corporation) for the past 6 months. Low back pain among women was assessed based on the Orebro musculoskeletal pain questionnaire. A modified Oswestry Low Back Pain Disability Questionnaire was used to measure the disability level. Participants were selected using cluster sampling (proportionate probability sampling). Data was analysed using IBM SPSS software version 20, Chicago USA. Results: The mean age of study subjects was 55.49±7.01. Overall, the prevalence of low back pain was found to be 53.1%. Many women with low back pain experienced moderate disability (79.2%). The low back pain was influenced by socio-demographic variables that include age, diabetic status, presence of dyslipidaemia, presence of trauma (p<0.05). Disability was influenced by age, history of trauma, history of dyslipidemia, family type (joint) (p<0.05). Conclusions: Prevalence of low back pain among women was comparatively higher than reported in other studies from India and was associated with a moderate degree of disability.