Prevalence of low back pain and manual work among nurses / Nur Atiqah Ramli

Purpose: To find out the prevalence of low back pain among nurses in a general hospital and its related factors. Objectives: To study the prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders (low back pain) and manual work among nurses in a general hospital and its related ergonomic risk factors. The study design was cross-sectional. Total 249 samples were selected conveniently for this study from a general hospital and the samples were stratified sampling which were six departments or units included in this study. The departments included were Medical Department, Surgical Department, Orthopedic Department, Pediatric Department, High Dependency Unit and Intensive Care Unit. Data was collected by using of self-administrated questionnaire which was adopted and modified from Standardized Nordic MSD Questionnaires. Microsoft Office Excel 2007 was used for data analysis which focused via table, pie chart and bar chart. Results: The finding of the study was that the 75% nurses suffered from LBP. Most of them had been suffered from mild pain was 76% and moderately 23%. The highest factor causing back pain was lifting task. Conclusion: The investigator could from this study that more than half nurses were suffering from LBP. Result of this study also provided background information about LBP that may be useful in prevention and treatment of LBP, thereby reducing its prevalence.