The Prevalence and Correlates of Back Pain in Adults: A Cross Sectional Study from Asir Region

Abstract
Background: Low back pain is a global health problem and it is a common form of muscluskeleton diseases. Low back pain interferes with the quality of life of the individuals, and it is a leading cause of medical consultation. Smoking, life style and physical activity had association with LBP.
Aim of the Study: To measure prevalence of back pain among adult population in Asir Region.
To assess back pain's correlation with age, gender, smoking and physical activity.
To assess influence of times per day and years of smoking on back pain.
Methods: The study is descriptive cross sectional study, it was performed during the period from April 2018 to May 2018 on adult educated population in Asir Region. A structured self-administered questionnaire was developed to investigate sociodemographics variables, smoking history, medical history and back pain history.
Results: The study included 400 participants, 260 (65%) of them were males and 140 (35%) were females. There were 52.3% of participants reported having back pain, and 97 (24.3%) reported having continuous back pain. Several factors influenced the prevalence of back pain; it was found that being male was associated with suffering back pain (p-value= 0.03). Whereas performing sport activity was associated with having no back pain (p-value=0.02). Age had no significant correlation with back pain. The study included 217 (54.3%) current smoker and 43 (10.7%) ex-smoker. There were 89 (22.3%) smoking 1-3 times per day and 107 (26.8%) smoking since 4-6 years, also in this study we find a strong relation between smoking and back pain (p-value=0.001).
Both of times of smoking per day and years of smoking positively associated with back pain (r=+0.3, p-value=0.004; r=+0.4, p-value=0.03 respectively). Persistence of back pain positively associated with years of smoking (r=+0.2, p-value= 0.02).
Conclusion: There was moderate prevalence of back pain among our participants. The prevalence of back pain was found to be associated with gender, smoking state and physical activity. It was more prevalent in males and smokers, whereas performing sport activity was associated with having no back pain. The prevalence of back pain was found to be associated with times and years of smoking and the chronic back pain was positively associated with years of smoking.