The Occurrence of Pain in the Lumbar Spine in the Professional Group of Nurses

Introduction. Back pain syndromes affect people inhabiting every latitude of the globe. They are more or less intense diseases of affluence affecting many professional groups, including nurses. Aim. The aim of the study was to assess the influence of selected risk factors on the occurrence of back pain in the lumbar region among nurses from the Specialist City Hospital in Toruń. Material and Methods. The research was carried out at the Specialist City Hospital (SCH) in Toruń after obtaining the consent of the Bioethics Committee and the hospital management. The study included a group of 165 nurses employed in all organizational units of the hospital. The work uses the method of a diagnostic survey, and two research tools — the original survey and the Oswestry questionnaire. Results. Among the analysed demographic factors, only the age and seniority of the respondents predispose to the occurrence of back pain syndrome (p < 0.05). The BMI index also turned out to be statistically significant (p < 0.05). The statistical relationship (p > 0.05) was not confirmed among other variables such as: gender, work system, physical load, smoking and past spine injuries. Conclusions. Due to the increase in the average age and seniority among nurses, increasing back pain will become their leading health problems. The broadly understood health education in this professional group should be considered in order to reduce the share of overweight and obesity as factors predisposing to back pain syndrome. (JNNN 2020;9(2):65–70) Key Words: spinal pain syndromes, nurses, measurement