LOW BACK PAIN AND ASSOCIATED FACTORS AMONG NURSES WORKING IN PUBLIC HOSPITALS OF HARARI REGION AND DIRE DAWA CITY ADMINISTRATION, EASTERN ETHIOPIA

Abstract

Background: Globally, low back pain is widespread problem among nurses. It is largely contributed to activity limitation and absenteeism from work. The global prevalence of low back pain among nurses’ ranges from 28% to 86%. Reported prevalence of low back pain in Ethiopia ranges from 45.8% to 70.9% which is generated from insufficient sample size. Epidemiologically reliable prevalence and associated factors of low back pain is not well studied in study area. Thus, this study tried to identify the prevalence and factors associated with low back pain among nurses. Methods and materials: Hospital based cross-sectional study was conducted among randomly selected 404 nurses working in public hospitals of Harari Region and Dire Dawa City Administration. Standardized and pre-tested Nordic musculoskeletal and other questionnaire was used to collect data. Data was collected by trained data collectors, checked for errors, entered into Epi-data version 3.1, cleaned, exported to SPSS version 22 and then cleaned, recoded and analyzed. All covariates that were significant at p value < 0.25 in bivariate logistic regression analysis were considered for further multivariable logistic regression analysis. Multico-linearity test was carried out by co-linearity statistics (VIF). The direction and strength of statistical association was measured by odd ratio with 95%CI. Finally, statistical significance was declared at p-value < 0.05. Results: A total of 404 nurses responded to this study and yielded 96.4% response rate. The 12- month prevalence of low back pain was found to be 38.1% (95%CI: 33%-43%) and the point prevalence was 36.4 %. It is more prevalent among females (65%). More than 5 years of experience (AOR=3.135; 95%CI (1.292-7.605), manual lifting of heavy weight > 10kg (AOR=5.260; 95%CI (1.869-14.805) and working in awkward posture (AOR=3.93; 95%CI (1.109-13.924), were variables significantly associated with low back pain. Conclusion: About 2/5th of nurses working in public hospitals of Harari Region and Dire Dawa City Administration are suffering with low back pain. In association with their back pain 40% of nurses have the intention to change their profession. This could fuel up the burden of nurse human resource shortage. Long duration of working experience, lifting heavy weight >10kg manually and working in awkward posture are important factors that contributed to occurrence of low back pain. These modifiable risk factors can be prevented through tailored intervention.