Panjit WannapiraWiroj WannapiraKanyarat Cumjun2011-02-162011-02-162007-02-022007-02-02Buddhachinaraj Medical Journal; Vol.24 No.2 May-August 2007; 181-186http://imsear.searo.who.int/handle/123456789/130185PROBLEM/BACKGROUND: Increasing number of hospital personnel attended with low back pain at Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. OBJECTIVE: To determine the prevalence of low back pain in the hospital personnel. Possible correlations between this pain and some individual factors were also explored. RESEARCH DESIGN: A cross-sectional analytic study. SETTING: Buddhachinaraj Phitsanulok Hospital. MATERIALS and METHOD: The questionnaire survey was conducted to all hospital personnel in October to November, 2005. Descriptive statistics and chi-square test were used for data analysis with significant level at 0.05. RESULTS: 1,615 out of 2,135 questionnaires returned. The response rate was 75.6 %. Most of them were nurses (39.1%), female sex (84.3%), and average age was 38.1 years (range 17-60 years). The prevalence of low back pain were 71.0 %. Low back pain was common in transport workers, nurses, and nurse-aids, respectively. There was an association among low back pain with sex and exercise behavior (p \< 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Low back pain poses a common problem among hospital personnel. Further in-depth study on specific risk factors and prevention strategies to reduce prevalence of low back pain and improve quality of life should be done.en-USBuddhachinaraj Medical JournalOriginal Articles