Relationships among pain intensity, depressive symptoms, and disability in office workers with chronic low back pain: an exploratory path analysis

Objective: To examine the relationship of pain intensity and depressive symptoms with disability in office workers with chronic low back pain (CLBP), as well as to determine whether depressive symptoms help explain this relationship.Design: Cross-sectional study Methods: We analyzed the data of 61 office workers with chronic nonspecific low back pain.Pain intensity was measured using the Numeric Pain Rating Scale (NPRS), depressive symptoms using the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), and disability using the Oswestry Disability Index (ODI).We summarized the data and conducted correlation and multiple regression analyses.Exploratory path analysis with bootstrap 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were used to assess whether depressive symptoms were part of this pathway.Results: Mean NPRS, BDI, and ODI scores were 3.69 ± 1.66, 6.02 ± 6.63, and 12.79 ± 7.89, respectively.NPRS scores were correlated with ODI (r = 0.654) and BDI (r = 0.339) scores, and BDI scores were correlated with ODI (r = 0.481) scores.After adjusting for body mass index (BMI), computer use time, and exercise time, NPRS and BDI scores remained independently correlated with ODI scores.Path analysis supported an indirect NPRS-to-ODI pathway through BDI because the bootstrap 95% CI did not include zero.Conclusions: Pain intensity and depressive symptoms were independently associated with disability in office workers with CLBP.Depressive symptoms partially explain the relationship between pain intensity and disability.These findings support the consideration of depressive symptoms alongside pain intensity when assessing and managing disability, and emphasize the clinical relevance of psychosocial factors in this population.As the data were cross-sectional, causal mediation could not be inferred.