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Occupational and environmental medicine
Original research
Factors associated with disabling low back pain among nursing personnel at a medical centre in Japan: a comparative cross-sectional survey
  1. Takahiko Yoshimoto1,
  2. Hiroyuki Oka2,
  3. Shuhei Ishikawa3,
  4. Akatsuki Kokaze1,
  5. Shingo Muranaga3,
  6. Ko Matsudaira2
  1. 1 Department of Hygiene, Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Showa University School of Medicine, Shinagawa-ku, Japan
  2. 2 Department of Medical Research and Management for Musculoskeletal Pain, The University of Tokyo, Bunkyo-ku, Japan
  3. 3 Department of Rehabilitation, Kameda Medical Centre, Kamogawa, Japan
  1. Correspondence to Dr Takahiko Yoshimoto; yoshimotota{at}gmail.com

Abstract

Objectives Low back pain (LBP) is a common cause of disability among nursing personnel. Although many studies regarding the risk factors for LBP among nursing staff have focused on the physical load at work, multidimensional assessments of risk factors are essential to identify appropriate preventive strategies. We aimed to investigate the association of multidimensional factors (individual, physical, psychological and occupational) with disabling LBP among nursing personnel in Japan.

Design Observational study with comparative cross-sectional design.

Setting Data were collected using the self-administered questionnaire at a tertiary medical centre.

Participants After excluding participants with missing variables, 718 nursing personnel were included in the analysis.

Outcome measures A self-administered questionnaire assessed individual characteristics, rotating night shift data, severity of LBP, previous episode of LBP, sleep problem, kinesiophobia (Tampa Scale for Kinesiophobia), depressive condition (K6), physical flexibility and frequency of lifting at work. A logistic regression model was used to evaluate the factors associated with disabling LBP (LBP interfering with work) among nursing personnel.

Results Of all participants, 110 (15.3%) reported having disabling LBP. The multivariable logistic regression analysis after adjustment for several confounding factors showed that kinesiophobia (highest tertile, adjusted OR (aOR): 6.13, 95% CI : 3.34 to 11.27), previous episode of LBP (aOR: 4.31, 95% CI: 1.50 to 12.41) and insomnia (aOR: 1.66, 95% CI: 1.05 to 2.62) were significantly associated with disabling LBP.

Conclusions The present study indicated that kinesiophobia, a previous episode of LBP, and sleep problems were associated with disabling LBP among nursing personnel. In the future, workplace interventions considering assessments of these factors may reduce the incidence of disabling LBP in nursing staff, although further prospective studies are needed.

  • low back pain
  • nurse
  • kinesiophobia
  • sleep

This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited, appropriate credit is given, any changes made indicated, and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/.

https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2019-032297

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    Footnotes

    • Contributors TY and KM contributed to the conceptualisation of this study. TY and SI contributed to the data acquisition. TY and HO analysed and interpreted the data. SM, AK and KM contributed to the supervision of this study. TY drafted the manuscript. All authors have read and approved the final manuscript.

    • Funding This study was supported by a grant from Industrial Disease Clinical Research Grants (No. 14020301). The funder had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

    • Competing interests KM reports grants from the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare during the conduct of the study; grants and personal fees from AYUMI Pharmaceutical Corporation, Nippon Zoki Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., Ono Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd, Shionogi & Co., Ltd., Eli Lilly Japan, Astellas Pharma Inc., Toto Ltd., Eisai Co., Ltd., Teijin Pharma Limited, Japan Inc., and Hisamitsu Pharmaceutical Co., Inc.; personal fees from Pfizer Inc., Janssen Pharmaceutical K.K., Kaken Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., Mochida Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., and Daiichi Sankyo Company, Limited; grants from Sompo Holdings, Inc., MTG, NuVasive Japan, and Murata Manufacturing Co., Ltd.; grants from Okamura Corporation; and non-financial support from Trunk Solution Co., Ltd. outside the submitted work.

    • Patient consent for publication Not required.

    • Ethics approval All procedures were approved by the Research Ethics Committee of Kameda Medical Centre (Approval No. 16-159) and carried out according to the Declaration of Helsinki.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.

    • Data availability statement Data are available upon reasonable request.