Prevalence of low back pain and knowledge on body mechanics among the staff nurses in a tertiary care hospital.

Back ground: Low back pain is a common work related injury. Nursing is a profession with a greater risk for the development of low back pain. The purpose of the present study is to assess the prevalence of low back pain and knowledge on body mechanics among the staff nurses. Materials and methods: Descriptive cross sectional study in which convenience sampling technique was used to select 384 staff nurses. Data collection was done using a validated self-administered questionnaire. Results: Among 384 staff nurses 285 (74.2%) nurses had low back pain. Among the low back pain cases, 18 (4.7%) cases were diagnosed by health care professionals and 15 (3.9%) cases were on regular treatment. Severe pain was found among 16 (4.2%) samples. 162 (42.2%) staff nurses experienced pain on lumbar region. The study findings showed that low back pain was associated with age, BMI, exercise pattern, qualification, number of children, type of delivery, number of lift, stressful work environment, over all standing time, area of posting and nurse patient ratio. About half of the study participants had good knowledge regarding body mechanics with a mean score of 15.02. Knowledge of staff nurses was significantly associated with qualification and area of posting. Conclusions: Even though nurses had good knowledge on body mechanics they rarely follow it. Appropriate interventions at initial stages can reduce the incidence of low back pain. Hence can improve the quality of life of nurses.