Prevalence of Lower Back Pain and its Relationship with Work Ability Index among Workers in Printing Industry

Abstract

Background and Objective: Lower back pain is one of the most common musculoskeletal disorders and an important cause of early retirement due to disability in employees in industrialized and developing countries. The present study aimed to determine the work ability index and its relationship with low back pain among employees of the Tehran offset printing industry. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional descriptive-analytical study was performed within six months in 2020. Data from 220 employers working in the offset printing industry were collected through survey questionnaires, including Nordic Musculoskeletal Questionnaires and Work Ability Index. Data analysis was performed using SPSS software (version 24) with a significance level of p<0.05. Results: In general, more than half of the participants (62.5%) indicated high symptoms of lower back pain. The results of the Pearson correlation test showed that there was a positive and significant correlation between the level of work ability and the severity of low back pain (p<0.001). Conclusion: The results of the present study indicated the need to increase awareness through training courses, and identify and control the risk factors that cause back pain in the studied employees to strengthen appropriate practices and create motivation in adopting appropriate preventive measures to reduce the prevalence of back pain and increase the work ability.

Keywords

• lower back pain
• musculoskeletal disorders
• printing industry
• work ability index