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    Biopsychosocial factors are associated with low back pain in female nursing students: a cross sectional study.

    Access Status
    Fulltext not available
    Authors
    Mitchell, Tim
    O'Sullivan, Peter
    Burnett, Angus
    Straker, Leon
    Smith, Anne
    Thornton, Jennifer
    Rudd, C.
    Date
    2009
    Type
    Journal Article
    
    Metadata
    Show full item record
    Citation
    Mitchell, Tim and O'Sullivan, Peter and Burnett, Angus and Straker, Leon and Smith, Anne and Thornton, Jennifer and Rudd, Cobie. 2009. Biopsychosocial factors are associated with low back pain in female nursing students: a cross sectional study. International Journal of Nursing Studies. 46 (5): pp. 678-688.
    Source Title
    International Journal of Nursing Studies
    DOI
    10.1016/j.ijnurstu.2008.11.004
    ISSN
    00207489
    Faculty
    Faculty of Health Sciences
    School of Physiotherapy
    Remarks

    The link to the journal’s home page is: http://www.journalofnursingstudies.com/home

    Crown Copyright © 2008. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

    URI
    http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/18113
    Collection
    • Curtin Research Publications
    Abstract

    Background: Occupational low back pain is a significant problem among nurses. Recent literature suggests current occupational preventative strategies for nurses have not been effective. Given low back pain is already prevalent before commencing employment,nursing students should be the target of preventative interventions. Modifiable personal factors which contribute to low back pain have proven difficult to identify, but are thought to play an important role in the biopsychosocial nature of low back pain.Objectives: To evaluate the contribution of personal biopsychosocial factors to low backpain in nursing students.Design: Cross-sectional study comprising physical testing and questionnaires.Settings: Two university undergraduate nursing schools in Western Australia. Participants: 170 female undergraduate nursing students.Methods: Low back pain and control subjects were compared across social, lifestyle (physical activity), psychological (stress, anxiety, depression, back pain beliefs, coping strategies and catastrophising) and physical (spinal postures and spinal kinematics in functional tasks, leg and back muscle endurance, spinal repositioning error and cardiovascular fitness) characteristics. Low back pain was considered as either "minor" or "significant" depending upon pain severity, duration, impact and level of disability.Results: Over 30% of all subjects (mean age 22.5 4.5 years) reported 'significant" low backpain in the preceding 12 months.Univariate analysis: social measures did not distinguish between groups. Subjects with "significant" low back pain were more physically active (p = 0.04), hadhigher stress scores (p = 0.01) and used passive coping strategies (p < 0.001) more than othersubjects. "Significant" lowback pain subjects held their lower lumbar spine in a more extended posture during transfers at bed height than other subjects. No differences between groups were found for sagittal spinal mobility, static spinal posture, muscle endurance, spinal repositioning error, cardiovascular fitness or other psychological measures. Multivariate analysis: regressionanalysis revealed stress, coping, physical activity, spinal kinematics, and age all contributed independently to the presence of low back pain, representing a significant 23% of variance.Conclusions: Modifiable lifestyle, psychological and physical factors were independently associated with low back pain in nursing students. Targeting personal factors associated with low back pain in nursing students, rather than occupational factors in working nurses may help improve the impact of low back pain in nurses. Prospective studies are requiredto confirm the relevance of these findings for risk of future low back pain in nurses.

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