Prevalence of low back pain and its related factors among pre-hospital emergency personnel in Iran

Abstract

Objective: Low back pain is one of the most important job injuries among emergency medical personnel. This study was carried out to investigate the prevalence of low back pain as well as its physical, mental and managerial predisposing factors among emergency medical personnel in Iran. Methods: In this analytical cross-sectional study we recruited 298 pre-hospital emergency medical personnel based on census sampling. Data were gathered using Nordic and a research-made questionnaire related to physical, mental and managerial back pain factors. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 20. Descriptive and analytical tests including chisquare test were used appropriately. P value less than 0.05 was considered as the level of significance. Results: Findings showed that 46.3% of pre- hospital emergency technicians had a history of low back pain with different intensities. We observed a significant relationship between age, work experience, occupational-physical factors with low back pain (P>0.001). However, there was no significant relationship between occupational-managerial factors and mental-occupational factors with low back pain (P>0.05). Conclusion: Results show that the prevalence of back pain among emergency medical personnel is high. Identifying the factors associated with back pain can help the managers as well as the personnel to control the problem of back pain and increase employees’ productivity.

Prevalence of pain, analgesic self-medication and mental health in German pre-hospital emergency medical service personnel: a nationwide survey pilot-study

“…Previous studies from China, Japan, and Iran reported a prevalence of lower back issues of 12% to 66% in pre-hospital emergency workers (Imani et al 2018 ; Okada et al 2005 ; Zhang et al 2019 ). This is in the range of the present study, identifying pain at lumbar spine in almost 66% of participating pre-hospital EMS personnel with pain (59%), which corresponds to almost 40% of the full study population.…”

“…People working in pre-hospital emergency medical service (EMS) are an essential group of skilled healthcare professionals, evaluating acute patients and providing first care (Ilper et al 2014 ; Klepacka et al 2018 ). It is also known that people working in pre-hospital EMS are often suffering from back complaints (Imani et al 2018 ; Maguire et al 2005 ; Okada et al 2005 ; Zhang et al 2019 ). A study with Chinese ambulance drivers indicated a 1-year prevalence of lower back pain lasting for at least 3 months of 12.3% (Zhang et al 2019 ).…”

“…A study with Chinese ambulance drivers indicated a 1-year prevalence of lower back pain lasting for at least 3 months of 12.3% (Zhang et al 2019 ). Data from Imani et al ( 2018 ) with 298 pre-hospital emergency technicians revealed that 46.3% experienced lower back pain of different intensities (Imani et al 2018 ). In addition to lower back pain, Okada et al ( 2005 ) reported feet, knee, shoulder and neck issues in 15.5–36.7% of EMS personnel.…”

Estimation of work-related back pain syndrome in emergency medical services personnel

“…Lokalizacja dolegliwości bólowych i ich częstotliwość u badanych W przeprowadzonym badaniu wszyscy ankietowani zadeklarowali występowanie ZBK z różną częstotliwością w ciągu ostatnich 12 miesięcy. Największym problemem u ratowników, zarówno w Polsce, jak i na świecie, są dolegliwości dolnego odcinka kręgosłupa [2,4,6,13,14]. W badaniu własnym występowanie bólów głównie w okolicy lędźwiowo--krzyżowej zadeklarowało aż 65% badanych, odcinku szyjnym -20%, a w piersiowym -15% osób.…”

Challenges of organizational structure and human resources in pre-hospital emergency medical systems for cardiopulmonary resuscitation: A qualitative study

“…In the present study, intrapersonal challenges were one of the issues that personnel were involved with. The results of different studies have shown that pre-hospital EMS personnel suffer from intervertebral discs, osteoarthritis, back pain and anatomical disorders [31][32][33]. Although the results of these studies were expressed quantitatively, they still indicate the challenge of physical problems among these personnel.…”