Relationship between physical activity and low back pain during pregnancy / Nurhidayah Ahmad

Pregnancies cause numerous complications which may interfere in pregnant women's lives. Most of the pregnant women complained of low back pain throughout the gestational period. Hence, the objective of this study was to investigate the association between physical activity and low back pain among pregnant women. A cross sectional study was conducted among pregnant women in Malaysia. A total of 126 pregnant women at the gestational age more than 21 weeks were involved in the survey using the three questionnaires, socio-demographic questionnaire, International Physical Activity Questionnaire and Oswestry Low Back Disability Questionnaire. Chi Square Test was used to analyse the data. A number of 36.5% of the sample analysed were categorized of having minimal low back pain disability, 46.0% having moderate low back pain disability, and 17.5% suffered from severe low back pain disability. While according to physical activity level (PAL), 34.1% scored the lowest level of physical activity and the rest scored moderate level of physical activity. The analysis reported Pearson Chi Square Statistic, X2= 1.213, p=0.545. There is no relationship between physical activity level with the low back pain intensity during the course of pregnancy.