Prevalence of Low Back Pain and Its Intensity Among Teachers of Universities in Lahore

is one of the most debilitating conditions in�icting grief, discomfort, and disability to its bearer. Teachers are more at risk of having low back. As teaching requires such activities like long standing and sitting as occupational demand so making this profession more prone to develop low back pain. Objectives: To check the prevalence and intensity of low back pain in the teachers of universities in Lahore. Methods: This study was based on cross-sectional research. Total 261 participants were included in the study with systematic random sampling technique, and collection of the data is done by using an authentic scale “Owestery Disability Scale”. SPSS version 21.0 was used and frequency charts and bar charts are used. Results: Low back pain prevalence in university teachers is 56% and 44% participants were having no pain. Most of the teachers having pain were in age range of 31 to 40 years, 52.5% were females and 47.5% were male. Most of the participants who were having low back pain experienced mild pain which constitute about 86% of total respondents with low back pain. Moderate pain was experienced by 24% participants. Only 6% teachers from the sample size felt severe pain. Conclusion: There was a signi�cant prevalence of low back pain in teachers of universities in Lahore. The intensity of pain varied from mild to severe and most of the teachers experienced mild low back pain.

considered very important in case of low back pain, it is basically a physical activity which is repeated and planned and aims to enhance tness of low back [4]. There are various clinical presentations of low back pain and include, pain at lumber region which is dull and diffuse in character, it may radiate to both or one lower extremity and restricted range of motion [5]. Many factors are associated with low back pain and several occupations like teaching profession which require prolong sitting and standing as well as poor postures are considered as risk factor for developing the pain [6]. When the pain lasts for more than three months it Prevalence of Low Back Pain and Its Intensity Among Teachers

I N T R O D U C T I O N
Back pain (BP) is one of the most debilitating conditions in icting grief, discomfort, and disability to its bearer. Teachers are more at risk of having low back. As teaching requires such activities like long standing and sitting as occupational demand so making this profession more prone to develop low back pain. Objectives: To check the prevalence and intensity of low back pain in the teachers of universities in Lahore.Methods: This study was based on cross-sectional research. Total 261 participants were included in the study with systematic random sampling technique, and collection of the data is done by using an authentic scale "Owestery Disability Scale". SPSS version 21.0 was used and frequency charts and bar charts are used. Results: Low back pain prevalence in university teachers is 56% and 44% participants were having no pain. Most of the teachers having pain were in age range of 31 to 40 years, 52.5% were females and 47.5% were male. Most of the participants who were having low back pain experienced mild pain which constitute about 86% of total respondents with low back pain. Moderate pain was experienced by 24% participants. Only 6% teachers from the sample size felt severe pain. Conclusion: There was a signi cant prevalence of low back pain in teachers of universities in Lahore. The intensity of pain varied from mild to severe and most of the teachers experienced mild low back pain.
participants. The age range of participant was between 18 to 60 years. Administrative staff and teachers who had experience less than 1 year excluded from study. The questionnaire we used to obtain data was oldest and most reliable for low back pain, Oswestry Low Back Pain Disability Questionnaire (ODI). It is designed for assessment of functional and disability status. Basically ODI is a 60 item questionnaire but we only focused on occurrence and intensity of pain. The study design of this study is crosssectional, such type of study does not require any follow up and frequency can be determined through this type of study. A cross sectional study is a type of research study which provides the clear picture of the occurrence and pattern of a disease in a given inhabitants at a speci c point in time. The study was held at three universities of Lahore (UMT, PU and UCP) and the analysis of data was done SPSS version 21.0 Descriptive analysis of the data was done for v a r i a b l e s i n t h e s t u d y b y m e a n s o f s t a t i s t i c a l measurement. Rate of recurrence graphs, tables, proportions, standard deviations and means were used. Non probability or convenient sampling was used. A convenience sample is a group of people who are easily approached by researcher and available for study.

PJHS VOL. 3 Issue. 6 November 2022
Copyright (c) 2022. PJHS, Published by Crosslinks International Publishers comes under the category of chronic low back pain. Chronic low back pain has many detrimental effects on the life of the patient as it may affect his sleep, working e ciency and socialization as well as mental health [7]. Back pain that is due to some underlying pathology is termed as speci c LBP, it may be due to disc pathology, spinal canal pathology, osteoporosis or fractures. It is also known as non-mechanical LBP [8]. Nonspeci c low back pain is de ned under the de nition provided by National Institution for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), any pain due to muscle soreness, stiffness and without any underlying pathology or speci c cause, at the level of low back [9]. One of the common reason of LBP is lumber lordosis, it is increased lumber curve and responsible for increased shearing and compression between the vertebrae and can lead to muscle strain and disc herniation [10]. Furthermore, causes of work related LBP are basically physical. WHO recommends that physical activity has a vital role in person s health and wellbeing, 30 minutes of physical activity daily is important for improving quality of life is suggested by world health organization [11]. There are wide variety for LBP interventions such that, medications, behavioral therapy, physiotherapy and educating about postures and physical exercises. Now a day literature supports exercise therapy for chronic non-speci c LBP [12]. Non pharmacologic treatment is now considered as effective and better choice of treatment. Chronic low back pain is better treated with exercise therapy as compared to NSAIDs and painkillers. In addition to these there is less evidence supporting which exercise protocol is better as compared to other available exercises [13]. The objective of this study was to explore the prevalence of low back pain and its intensity in teachers of universities in Lahore. The study only conducted in 3 speci c universities of Lahore. Lahore is a big city of Pakistan and there are many private and public sector universities, where the academic life and ergonomic health related problems of faculties are often ignored and this study provides a little glance towards this essential matter at institutional level. This study was cross-sectional research held on university teaching faculty of three universities of Lahore. Simple random sampling technique was utilised and three universities were randomly selected and a sample of 261 participants was obtained. Sample size was determined by sample size calculator (https://www.calculator. net/sample-size-calculator.html). It was a survey based study at University of Management and Technology Lahore, Punjab University Lahore and University of Central Punjab Lahore. The population comprised of teachers in our selected universities, the target of our sample size was 261

R E S U L T S
Both male and females participated in the study 131 females and 130 males (Figure1). Most of the participants were young adults and lie in 31-40 years of age. Regarding prevalence of the low back pain out of 261, 145 participants (56%) participants were having low back pain. The respondents with low back pain were having pain intensity that range from mild to severe low back pain. While 116(44%) participants were having no pain. Age distribution and low back pain is shown in gure 2 and 3. . However, in our study there is also a high prevalence rate of low back pain in universities of Lahore. Another study also done in 2019 on teachers and different factors affecting their health concluded that psychological health also affects physical health. So, low back pain is also associated with depression of the teaching faculty [20]. In 2021 a study was done on female teachers and was amid on not only prevalence but also on the level of intensity of that pain. The study was done on 782 female teachers and physical inactivity was related to it. After analysis of results the conclusion that came was there is high prevalence and positive relation between physical inactivity and back pain [21]. So conducting the current study on teachers is signi cant and results also supports the correlation of teaching and low back pain. Mai et.al., done a systematic review on prevalence of low back pain and its associated factors, the prevalence of low back pain in speci c group of population like teaching is examined and the fact that their professional activities are such that which may be a causative factor for inducing low back pain [22]. Our study also held on teachers and came up with the conclusion that there is a high occurrence rate of low back pain among teaching faculty of universities. A study done by Anuar et.al., on secondary school teachers and concluded that ergonomics and occupational activities are linked with prevalence of low back pain [23]. Where as in our study there was also association of teaching and prevalence of low back pain.   The intensity of low back pain among teachers of universities is shown in table 2. According to pain intensity as it is evident from the above chart that most of the participants who were having low back pain experienced mild pain which constitute about 33% of the total respondents with low back pain. Moderate pain was experienced by 13% participants. Only 4% teachers from the sample size felt severe pain.

C O N C L U S I O N S
There is a signi cant prevalence of low back pain in teachers of universities in Lahore. The intensity of pain varied from mild to severe and most of the teachers experienced mild low back pain. DOI: https://doi.org/10.54393/pjhs.v3i06.309