Increased low back pain risk in nurses with high workload for patient care

Objective To examine whether the prevalence of low back pain (LBP) increased in hospital nurses with high patient care workload. Materials and Methods A structured, self-administered questionnaire was used to collect information on the prevalence of LBP and its associated factors from 788 registered nurses from a medical center in Taiwan. Results Among all nurses with eligible questionnaires, 567 (72.0%) had LBP. Mean daily hours of working, standing, and walking were persistently longer in the LBP group. Results from multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that daily working for 1 hour longer is linked to a 35% (95% confidence interval (CI) = 2–78%) greater risk of LBP. Compared with <2 years of service as nurse, nurses with 2–5 years of service had the highest risk (odds ratio (OR) = 2.11, 95% CI = 1.07–4.18). LBP risk was also higher for nurses with chore duty responsibilities (OR = 1.99, 95% CI = 1.12–3.53) and other back related disorders (OR = 4.43, 95% CI = 1.99–9.86). Conclusion Our results suggest that longer daily working hours and a large number of cared patients per shift should be discouraged in order to prevent musculoskeletal problems such as LBP in registered nurses.