Health-related quality of life in patients with low back pain in a low resource setting: a cross-sectional study at a tertiary hospital in Uganda

• Published in: African health sciences Vol. 23; no. 1; pp. 565 - 74
• Main Authors: Amesiya, Robert, Nyati, Mallon, Waiswa, Gonzaga, Mwaka, Erisa S
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Uganda Makerere Medical School 01-03-2023
• Subjects: Adult; Cross-Sectional Studies; Female; Humans; Low Back Pain - epidemiology; Male; Middle Aged; Quality of Life; Surveys and Questionnaires; Tertiary Care Centers; Uganda - epidemiology; Uganda; Health-related; Low back pain; Quality of life
• ISSN: 1680-6905; 1729-0503
• DOI: 10.4314/ahs.v23i1.59

Low back pain is the leading global cause of years lost to disability. The study aimed to assess the health-related quality of life in patients with low back pain attending an outpatient clinic at a national referral hospital in Uganda.
This was a hospital based cross-sectional study that involved 250 adult patients with low back pain. Data were collected using the modified short form-36 Health Survey questionnaire. Data were summarised using descriptive statistics. Analysis of Variance, the F-test and linear regression analysis were used for inferential statistics.
Majority of participants were female (66.4%) with a mean age of 60 years (SD 12.9, range 20- 87) and 44.6% were manual labourers. 70% of participants had had low back pain for more than one year and 74% had neuropathic symptoms. The total quality of life of participants was poor with a mean score of 31.9 (SD 15.6). The factors that significantly influenced quality of life included performing manual work (p=0.01), being unemployed (p=0.027) and weakness in the lower limbs (p=0.01).
Patients with low back pain had a poor quality of life that was significantly influenced by being unemployed, doing manual work and clinical features of nerve compression.