Prevalence of low back pain among employees of Eastern Visayas Regional Medical Center (EVRMC) Tacloban City, Leyte

ABSTRACT

Introduction@#Occupational low back pain has been prevalent in many work places everywhere. The authors have encountered employees from all sorts of job coming in for a health consultation relative to low back pain, including those who work at Eastern Visayas Regional Medical Center (EVRMC).@*Objectives@#This study aimed to assess the prevalence of low back pain among the employees of Eastern Visayas Regional Medical Center (EVRMC). The study specifically aimed to determine the profile of the employees, their low back pain experience, and the physical, psychological, and ergonomic factors which may be contributing to low back pain.@*Methods@#This was a cross-sectional study among employees of EVRMC. A questionnaire was distributed to 1002 employees, from which 914 was returned, yielding a return rate of 91%. Eight hundred six (806) respondents were considered for the study after excluding those who were pregnant and had history of trauma, and those whose questionnaires had missing data. Under an alpha level of 0.05, associations between the employees’ profile and LBP were determined.@*Results@#Findings revealed that one hundred sixty seven out of the eight hundred six respondents (20.71%) had low back pain. One hundred forty-seven (147) of them had moderate disability. Majority of the respondents were young adults, aged 25-45 years old. Males and Females were affected equally. The most number of employees who were able to participate in the study were from the administrative (n=288) and the nursing (n=262) divisions. Twenty-one percent (21%) of the respondents had low back pain at the time of data gathering, and 51.49 % of them had ergonomic factors mostly causing their back pain.@*Conclusion@#The most common factor causing low back pain among the employees was ergonomic in nature and it had something to do with poor body mechanics. Awareness raising and giving of inputs through seminars and distribution of educational materials and pamphlets on proper body mechanics was put forth as recommendation from the findings of the study.