Abstract

Pain has remained one of the disabling conditions in humans. Several survey studies have emphasized the magnitude of pain as a public health issue, citing its negative impact on patients' functional status and quality of life. This study sought to ascertain the disability risks among adults with low back pain in Enugu State with respect to age, gender, marital status, Body Mass Index (BMI) and occupation. A standard Orebro Questionnaire was administered to respondents in a cross-sectional survey using a convenience sampling technique. The questionnaire had three sections: (A social demographic details; B occurrence of pain and interventions for pain relief; C risks of disability). The weight and height of the participants were measured using weighing scale and stadiometer respectively. Ethical approval was obtained from the Research and Ethics committee of University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital, Enugu, while the informed consent of the participants was duly obtained before commencing the study. A total of 400 questionnaires were distributed and recovered. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics of relative frequency and inferential statistics of Chi-square. Among the 400 respondents 236 were females (59.0%) and 164 males (41.0%). Among age range, adults within the age range of 55-64yrs had the highest risk of disability (31.1%); among genders, females had the highest risk of disability (55.2%); among marital status, married had the highest risk of disability (82.8%). Chi-square analysis showed that there was significant relationship between risk of disability and age, occupation and BMI (p < 0.05) Coping strategies adopted were; sitting and resting after a few hours of work, standing after few hours of sitting down, use of over-the-counter analgesics and mild to moderate physical exercise to alleviate the LBP.

Keywords: Risk of disability, musculoskeletal pain, quality of life, functional status