A study to find out the prevalence and characteristics of low back ache among caregivers of adults with spinal cord injury

Abstract

Back ground: Back pain is common among health workers especially patient’s caregivers in Spinal Cord Injury group. Objectives of the study were to estimate the prevalence of low back pain among the caregivers of adults with spinal cord injury. Care givers of all the spinal cord injured individuals who seeks for rehabilitation in the department of PMR were eligible to participate in the study. Methodology: This was an observational study with a cross-sectional study design. After receiving the consent, the participants were asked to fill the questionnaire. First part of the questionnaire consists of demographical data of the patients and their caregivers. If the caregiver was reporting LBP, then they were asked to grade their pain intensity through Visual Analogue scale and also to fill Oswestry Disability Index (ODI) to identify the disability caused by the LBP. These data were used to find the prevalence of LBP among caregivers and also to find relationship with various demographical variables. Results: One hundred patients and their caregivers’ data collected and analyzed. Out of these 20 where drop outs and samples female (42) caregivers reported that they have low back pain. In that 16 caregivers were males and 26 were females. There was no statistically significant difference between the patients and caregivers of the LBA group and no pain group in the demographic data except the duration of injury. Conclusion: This study aimed to find out the prevalence and characteristics of low back ache of caregivers of the adult with low back pain. Study revealed 51.9% prevalence of low back pain among the SCI caregivers.