LOW BACK PAIN AND ITS ASSOCIATED FACTORS AMONG SECONDARY SCHOOL TEACHERS IN CUTTACK, ODISHA: A CROSS-SECTIONAL STUDY

Abstract

The purpose of the present study was to search the prevalence of low back pain and its associated factors in secondary school teachers of Cuttack, Odisha. For this purpose, 457 secondary school’s teachers aged 26-60 years were contacted from various schools of Cuttack city, of those 191 teachers (76 male and 115 female) were confirmed for low back pain by self- informative questionnaire. Modified Oswestry Low Back Pain Disability Pain Questionnaire and a self-constructed questionnaire were applied to measure the socio-demographic and economic characteristics of the participants. The results revealed that the overall prevalence of LBP in the last 12 months among secondary school teachers was 41.79%, of those female teachers (60.20%) were affected more than their male counterparts. Some factors, such as excessive work load, sleeping disturbance (especially in female teachers), prolonged standing in classroom, physical inactivity affected adversely towards their health and wellbeing causing LBP in them. It was also found that the maximum male (75.00%) and female (58.26%) teachers had the minimum disability in Oswestry Disability Index category. It might be concluded that the addressing work-related and individual factors would be essential to decrease the magnitude of the problem. Keywords: Low back pain, Prevalence, Associated factors, Secondary school teachers of Cuttack, Odisha.