Do “Myths” of low back pain exist among young Indian college-going adults with a history of low back pain? A cross-sectional study

Abstract

Low back pain (LBP) is a prominent public health problem which causes disability around the globe. The prevalence of LBP is on the rise in lower to middle-income countries. India has a varied prevalence of LBP among the rural as well as urban population ranging from 6.2 to 92%. There has been a marked increase in young adults getting LBP with a proportion converting to chronic LBP later in life. Beliefs associated with any disorder affect the course, management, and need for imaging studies. Negative beliefs about LBP in any population may lead to unnecessary psychologic distress and an increase in disease burden. Focusing these negative beliefs on the younger population can help curb the chronicity and lessen the disability caused by it. This cross-sectional study explored the presence of myths in 516 college-going Indian young adults from Lovely Professional University. A total of 516 individuals participated in the study. The mean (SD) age of the participants was 22.69 years (2.417). Among them, 47.5% (245) were females and 52.5% (271) were males. The findings show that a high percentage of college-going young adults have false beliefs in most of the ten domains (myths) explored. The most prevalent myths were “LBP is caused by weak ‘core’ muscles and having a strong core protects against future LBP” (81.2%) and “LBP is caused by poor posture when sitting, standing, and lifting” with 80.6% agreeing to it. Our study demonstrated that the myths of low back pain are widespread among the studied population. The findings suggest that community education programs must be developed to address these myths, hence reducing the disease burden associated with back pain.