Factors Affecting Low back pain among workers in Pakistan- a narrative review

Abstract

Background: According to world health organization the low back pain is the most common disability among workers and is among the top ten diseases around the globe. The Global Burden of disease 2010 stated that LBP is amongst the top 6th at disability (DALYs) causing injuries and diseases. This is the highest ranked in terms of disability and causes an enormous economic burden on generalized industry, individual and government at large. Objective: To find out the factors that affect low back pain among different workers in Pakistan Methodology: The data was collected from different databases such as PubMed, google scholar and PEDro using a predefined search strategy with proper Boolean terms ‘AND’ or ‘OR’ or ‘NOT’. There were no search limitations. The data was collected from the available literature of past 10 years. The articles with relevant articles and titles were reviewed. Results: The most common risk factors that were seen almost among all the professions were static and prolonged posture, any work that demands prolonged standing or sitting, bending or twisting, improper lifting. Every profession is at high risk for developing low back pain but among all the professions physiotherapists, sonographers, bankers and shopkeepers were at higher verge for LBP. Conclusion: It has been found out that low back pain is increasing day by day and roaming around every profession. Timely trainings with proper ergonomically techniques can cause decrease in LBP and increase in economical productivity in Pakistan. It can be said that good ergonomics for good economics.

Keywords

• Risk factors, Low back pain, workers, disease, prevalence, Pakistan