Prevalence and factors associated with low back pain amongst women attending antenatal clinic in Kamuli District Hospital

Abstract

Introduction: Low Back Pain (LBP) is a common musculoskeletal problem faced by women during pregnancy and greatly affects their quality of life, productivity in their daily routine activities and activity limitation. Despite the consistence in complaints of LBP in pregnancy health workers dismiss it as a trivial issue and sometimes refer to it as normal occurrence of pregnancy and sufferers go without treatment. This study sought to determine the prevalence and associated factors of LBP amongst women attending antenatal clinic in Kamuli District Hospital. Methodology: A cross-sectional study was conducted targeting women attending ANC at Kamuli District Hospital. A total of 341 respondents were systematically selected and interviewed using a standardized structured questionnaire. The outcome variable was the occurrence of LBP. Using STATA 15.0 for data analysis, a modified Poisson regression model was used to determine factors independently associated with LBP amongst pregnant women. A 95% confidence interval and p value of < 0.05 was used to test significance. Results: The prevalence of LBP amongst respondents was (30.8%; 95% CI 26.13- 35.88%) affecting women mainly in third trimester. Respondents who had 3 – 4 ANC visits were more likely to report LBP than those who had 1 – 2 ANC visits (aPR 1.50 (1.06-2.12)). Respondents with no history of pelvic/back accidents were less likely to have LBP as compared to those with history of pelvic/back trauma (aPR 0.40 (0.19- 0.84)). Respondents who engaged in daily work routines for more than 2 hours (aPR 0.67 (0.47-0.96)) and 1 – 2 hours (aPR 0.50 (0.29-0.87)) were less likely to have LBP compared to those who engaged in work for less than 1 hour. Respondents who had work breaks of more than 30 minutes were less likely to have LBP (aPR 0.53 (0.31 -0.91)). LBP affected the daily functional activities of respondents with 67.6% reporting minimal disability 31.4% moderate disability. Majority of the respondents 79.49% received analgesics for management of LBP while 16.67% received counselling/patient education and only 3.85% received physiotherapy. Conclusion: LBP is a common problem amongst women attending ANC in Kamuli District Hospital and it affects their daily functional activities. It’s associated with duration of activity and duration of work breaks during pregnancy. There is need for Kamuli district Hospital to focus on occupational factors affecting LBP and encourage uptake of physiotherapy services.