ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Course of low back pain among nurses: a longitudinal study across eight years

I Maul¹, T Läubli¹, A Klipstein², H Krueger¹

¹ Institute of Hygiene and Applied Physiology, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich, Clausiusstr. 25, 8092 Zurich, Switzerland
² Department of Rheumatology and Institute of Physical Medicine, University Hospital Zurich, Rämistr. 100, 8091 Zurich, Switzerland

Correspondence to:
Correspondence to:
Dr I Maul, Herdweg 94a, 70193 Stuttgart, Germany;
Irina.Maul{at}web.de

Aims: To describe the course of low back pain (LBP) among nurses across eight years.

Methods: A longitudinal study was performed with a follow up at 1 and 8 years among nurses employed by a large university hospital in Switzerland. A modified version of the Nordic Questionnaire was distributed to obtain information about demographic data, occupational activities, and various aspects of LBP. A clinical examination and several functional tests were used to overcome the problems associated with subjective pain reporting. Nurses having answered the questionnaire on all three occasions (n = 269) were classified into subgroups according to their pain intensity. For each subgroup the course of LBP was recorded.

Results: LBP was highly prevalent with an annual prevalence varying from 73% to 76%. A large percentage (38%) indicated the same intensity of LBP on all three occasions. The proportion of nurses reporting repeated increase of LBP (19%) was approximately as large as the proportion who complained about repeated decrease of LBP (17%).

Conclusion: It became evident that LBP poses a persistent problem among nurses. Over an eight year period almost half of the nurses indicated the same intensity of LBP, thus supporting a recurrent rather than a progressive nature of LBP.

Keywords: longitudinal study; nurses; low back pain

Abbreviations: LBP, low back pain; LMD, localised musculoskeletal disorders

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