An investigation of the effects of low back pain on functional disability level and quality of life in nurses working in a university hospital

Low back pain is one of the important health problems which are common in society and which affect the quality of life and functional health in a negative way. Nursing is among the professions that are frequently exposed to various risk factors in terms of the development of low back pain. This study was conducted as a descriptive study with a view to examining the effect of low back pain on nurses' functional disability and quality of life levels. Target population of the study is all the nurses working at Balcalı Hospital in Çukurova University Medical Faculty. No sampling was performed, all the target population was involved in the study. Hence, the sample was formed by 514 nurses. Prior to the study, the required permissions were obtained from the Medical Faculty Non-Interventional Clinical Investigations Ethics Committee and the head physician of the Hospital where the study was conducted. The data were collected using Personal Information Form, The Quality of Life Scale Short Form 36 and the Oswestry Low Back Pain Scale. Statistical analysis of the data was performed using SPSS 16.0 package program. Results show that %85,4 of the nurses had low back pain at any stage of their life and %57,8 had continuing back pain. The mean scores for quality of life (SF-36) subscales were found Physical Functioning 68,26±24,48; Bodily Pain 59,59±23,17; Social Role Functioning 58,22±23,12; Mental Health 57,40±17,91; General Health Perceptions 49,77±19,19; Vitality 47,73±20,41; Physical Role Functioning 28,21±20,71 and Emotional Role Functioning 27,04±11,93. It was also found that the highest mean score was in Physical Functioning and the lowest mean score was in Emotional Role Functioning subscales. The Emotional Role Functioning subscale mean scores of nurses with low back pain were found to be the same as those of the nurses who did not have low back pain, and the other subscale mean scores of SF-36 were found to be lower than the mean scores of nurses who did not have low back pain (p<0,05). Findings showed that the mean score that the nurses with low back pain obtained from the Oswestry Low Back Pain Scale was 11,09±6,18 and majority of the nurses had mild function loss. Functional levels were found to be affected by age, body mass index, financial situation, working unit, satisfaction about the working unit, duration of daily exercises, wearing high heel shoes, experiencing pain at any stage of life and having a current low back pain (p<0,05). The study made some suggestions about increasing nurses' quality of life and function levels. Key words: Low back pain, Functional disability, Nurse, Quality of life