Evaluation of physiotherapists before and after the pandemic low back and neck pain in terms of job satisfaction, anxiety and quality of life

Employees may use a certain part of their body systems more or less functionally due to their work. Risk factors that develop depending on the anatomical and psychological characteristics of the person, socio-cultural factors, working technique and the physical conditions of the working environment adversely affect the respiratory, circulatory and other body systems, especially the musculoskeletal system. Physiotherapists, who are among the most risky groups among health workers, are constantly exposed to health problems related to the musculoskeletal system due to the activities they carry out during their daily routine work. Epidemics also cause many negative psychological consequences in healthcare workers. Failure to take into account the psychological stress that health workers are exposed to leads to significant negative consequences in the capacity of health services at both individual and societal levels. In this study, it is emphasized that low back and neck pain is frequently seen in physiotherapists, and the pandemic also affects the working people in terms of quality of life and anxiety. Therefore; It was aimed to evaluate the effect of physiotherapists' pre- and post-pandemic low back and neck pain on job satisfaction, anxiety and quality of life. The study included 50 volunteer physiotherapists who were physiotherapists for 1-5 years, experienced low back and neck pain at least once during the study period, and had a neck disability questionnaire score of 5 and above. The Minnesota Job Satisfaction Scale was used to assess the job satisfaction of the participants, the McGill - Melzack Pain Questionnaire for the assessment of pain, the Beck Anxiety Scale for the assessment of anxiety, the Oswestry Scale for the assessment of low back pain, the Neck Disability Questionnaire (CA) for the assessment of neck pain, and the Nottingham Health Profile (NSP) for the assessment of quality of life. . Statistical analyzes were performed with SPSS 22.0 for Windows. Significance level was accepted as p<0.05. As a result, a significant difference was found in pain, neck pain and quality of life (physical activity, pain, emotional reactions, energy, total score) between pre-pandemic and post-pandemic physiotherapists (p<0,05). It was determined that physiotherapists' pain, neck pain and quality of life were affected after the pandemic compared to before the pandemic.