Lower Back Pain as an Occupational Hazard Among Ugandan Health Workers

Background: Lower back pain is a public health concern affecting 70–85% of the world's population. There is paucity of published data on the prevalence, disability and risk factors for lower back pain among health workers in Uganda.Objective: To determine the frequency rate (note that is it imp...

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Autores principales:	Michael Aleku, Kevin Nelson, Anne Abio, Michael Lowery Wilson, Herman Lule
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Frontiers Media S.A. 2021
Materias:	injury occupational health sub saharan Africa pain backache Public aspects of medicine RA1-1270
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/d0e3e3dc437f486e967f8257fd84169a
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:d0e3e3dc437f486e967f8257fd84169a2021-12-01T22:52:48ZLower Back Pain as an Occupational Hazard Among Ugandan Health Workers2296-256510.3389/fpubh.2021.761765https://doaj.org/article/d0e3e3dc437f486e967f8257fd84169a2021-12-01T00:00:00Zhttps://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2021.761765/fullhttps://doaj.org/toc/2296-2565Background: Lower back pain is a public health concern affecting 70–85% of the world's population. There is paucity of published data on the prevalence, disability and risk factors for lower back pain among health workers in Uganda.Objective: To determine the frequency rate (note that is it implicit that frequency is a rate like incidence so including rate seems redundant here. This is bounded by zero and infinity. In contrast, prevalence is bounded by 0 and 1 and is thus a proportion not a rate) of lower back pain and its associated risks amongst health professionals in the Arua District of Uganda.Methods: Cross-sectional descriptive study of 245 consecutive participants conducted during February-April 2020. We stratified risks as individual or work related and analyzed the data using IBM SPSS version 25. Chi-square was used to measure the significance of association between categorical variables at 95% confidence interval, regarding a p ≤ 0.05 as significant.Results: The mean age of participants was 40.87 years ± 8.74 (SD), with female predominance (69.8%). Majority were either general nurses or midwives (64.9%) and more than half had practiced for over 6–10 years. The frequency rate of lower back pain was 39.6% (n = 97). Individual factors associated with LBP were; cigarette smoking (X2 = 33.040; P ≤ 0.001), alcohol consumption (X2 = 13.581; P ≤ 0.001), age (X2 = 14.717; P = 0.002), and female gender (X2 = 4.802; P = 0.028). The work related factors significantly associated with lower back pain were: being a nurse/midwife (X2 = 9.829; P = 0.007), working in the outpatient department (X2 = 49.752; P ≤ 0.001), bending (X2 = 43.912; P ≤ 0.001), lifting (X2 = 33.279; P < 0.001), over standing (X2 = 40.096; P ≤ 0.001), being in awkward positions (X2 = 15.607; P= < 0.001), and pushing patients (X2 = 21.999; P ≤ 0.001).Conclusion: The frequency rate of low back pain was high amongst health workers and its main associated individual and work related factors could have been prevented. Health workers should strike a balance between caring for their personal back-health and meeting clients' needs while manually handling patients. Ergonomic structuring, job organization, back health care courses and use of assistive equipment could reduce such occupational hazards in our low resourced settings.Michael AlekuKevin NelsonAnne AbioAnne AbioMichael Lowery WilsonHerman LuleFrontiers Media S.A.articleinjuryoccupational healthsub saharan AfricapainbackachePublic aspects of medicineRA1-1270ENFrontiers in Public Health, Vol 9 (2021)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	injury occupational health sub saharan Africa pain backache Public aspects of medicine RA1-1270
spellingShingle	injury occupational health sub saharan Africa pain backache Public aspects of medicine RA1-1270 Michael Aleku Kevin Nelson Anne Abio Anne Abio Michael Lowery Wilson Herman Lule Lower Back Pain as an Occupational Hazard Among Ugandan Health Workers
description	Background: Lower back pain is a public health concern affecting 70–85% of the world's population. There is paucity of published data on the prevalence, disability and risk factors for lower back pain among health workers in Uganda.Objective: To determine the frequency rate (note that is it implicit that frequency is a rate like incidence so including rate seems redundant here. This is bounded by zero and infinity. In contrast, prevalence is bounded by 0 and 1 and is thus a proportion not a rate) of lower back pain and its associated risks amongst health professionals in the Arua District of Uganda.Methods: Cross-sectional descriptive study of 245 consecutive participants conducted during February-April 2020. We stratified risks as individual or work related and analyzed the data using IBM SPSS version 25. Chi-square was used to measure the significance of association between categorical variables at 95% confidence interval, regarding a p ≤ 0.05 as significant.Results: The mean age of participants was 40.87 years ± 8.74 (SD), with female predominance (69.8%). Majority were either general nurses or midwives (64.9%) and more than half had practiced for over 6–10 years. The frequency rate of lower back pain was 39.6% (n = 97). Individual factors associated with LBP were; cigarette smoking (X2 = 33.040; P ≤ 0.001), alcohol consumption (X2 = 13.581; P ≤ 0.001), age (X2 = 14.717; P = 0.002), and female gender (X2 = 4.802; P = 0.028). The work related factors significantly associated with lower back pain were: being a nurse/midwife (X2 = 9.829; P = 0.007), working in the outpatient department (X2 = 49.752; P ≤ 0.001), bending (X2 = 43.912; P ≤ 0.001), lifting (X2 = 33.279; P < 0.001), over standing (X2 = 40.096; P ≤ 0.001), being in awkward positions (X2 = 15.607; P= < 0.001), and pushing patients (X2 = 21.999; P ≤ 0.001).Conclusion: The frequency rate of low back pain was high amongst health workers and its main associated individual and work related factors could have been prevented. Health workers should strike a balance between caring for their personal back-health and meeting clients' needs while manually handling patients. Ergonomic structuring, job organization, back health care courses and use of assistive equipment could reduce such occupational hazards in our low resourced settings.
format	article
author	Michael Aleku Kevin Nelson Anne Abio Anne Abio Michael Lowery Wilson Herman Lule
author_facet	Michael Aleku Kevin Nelson Anne Abio Anne Abio Michael Lowery Wilson Herman Lule
author_sort	Michael Aleku
title	Lower Back Pain as an Occupational Hazard Among Ugandan Health Workers
title_short	Lower Back Pain as an Occupational Hazard Among Ugandan Health Workers
title_full	Lower Back Pain as an Occupational Hazard Among Ugandan Health Workers
title_fullStr	Lower Back Pain as an Occupational Hazard Among Ugandan Health Workers
title_full_unstemmed	Lower Back Pain as an Occupational Hazard Among Ugandan Health Workers
title_sort	lower back pain as an occupational hazard among ugandan health workers
publisher	Frontiers Media S.A.
publishDate	2021
url	https://doaj.org/article/d0e3e3dc437f486e967f8257fd84169a
work_keys_str_mv	AT michaelaleku lowerbackpainasanoccupationalhazardamongugandanhealthworkers AT kevinnelson lowerbackpainasanoccupationalhazardamongugandanhealthworkers AT anneabio lowerbackpainasanoccupationalhazardamongugandanhealthworkers AT anneabio lowerbackpainasanoccupationalhazardamongugandanhealthworkers AT michaellowerywilson lowerbackpainasanoccupationalhazardamongugandanhealthworkers AT hermanlule lowerbackpainasanoccupationalhazardamongugandanhealthworkers
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Lower Back Pain as an Occupational Hazard Among Ugandan Health Workers

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