Author(s)

Wided Boughattas^1*, Olfa El Maalel¹, Maher Maoua¹, Iheb Bougmiza², Houda Kalboussi¹, Aicha Brahem¹, Souhaiel Chatti¹, Fethi Mahjoub¹, Néjib Mrizak¹

¹Department of Occupational Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Ibn El Jazzar, Sousse, Tunisia.
²Department of Community Health, Faculty of Medicine, Ibn El Jazzar, Sousse, Tunisia.

Objectives: Low back pain is a major occupational problem especially among nursing staff. The objectives of our study are to evaluate the prevalence of low back pain among nurses and to look for physical and psychosocial risk factors. Methods: It is a cross-sectional study based on a self-administered questionnaire destined for all nurses working in Farhat Hached Teaching hospital of Sousse (Tunisia). Results: Our study included 203 nurses with an average age of 39.8 years. The prevalence of low back pain over the last twelve months was 58.1%. The factors that are significantly associated to low back pain were: high BMI, number of pregnancies, arthritis, poor physical condition, daily frequency of inappropriate posture for the activity being performed, and the layout of materials in the workplace. Conclusion: Our study evidenced the high prevalence of LBP among nurses and allowed bringing to light the role of individual and ergonomic physical factors in the genesis of LBP. Such identification permits to undertake targeted preventive actions. The association between psychosocial factors and LBP was not emphasized.

Low Back Pain, Prevalence, Nurses, Physical Factors, Psychosocial Factors

Boughattas, W. , Maalel, O. , Maoua, M. , Bougmiza, I. , Kalboussi, H. , Brahem, A. , Chatti, S. , Mahjoub, F. and Mrizak, N. (2017) Low Back Pain among Nurses: Prevalence, and Occupational Risk Factors. Occupational Diseases and Environmental Medicine, 5, 26-37. doi: 10.4236/odem.2017.51003.