Relationship Between Body Mass Index and Occurrence of Low Back Pain Among Nurses in Ekiti State

This study investigated the relationship between body mass index (BMI) and the occurrence of low back pain among nurses in a teaching hospital in Ekiti state. The study is a descriptive survey among 196 nursing officers randomly selected in Ekiti State University Teaching Hospital, Ado-Ekiti. Data were collected with a self-developed questionnaire subjected to face and content validity. The reliability of the instrument was determined using the test-retest reliability method which yielded a coefficient of 0.84. collected data were analyzed using the binary logistic method and the finding revealed that 70(35.7%) males and 126(54.3%) females participated in the study. The mean BMI was 26.6, with7(3.6%) underweight, 108(55.1%) having normal weight, 74(37.8%) were overweight and 7(3.6.%) were obese. Low back pain occurred in 48.5% of nurses and over 66% of sufferers were either overweight or obese (<0.001). The study concluded that there was a significant relationship between BMI and the occurrence of low back pain among nurses in Ekiti State. Nurses may need to imbibe lifestyle modification to reduce the incidence of low back pain. Keywords: Low back pain, BMI, Overweight, Obesity, Nurses,