| Abstract [eng] |
ABSTRACT Vilnius University Faculty of Medicine Institute of Health Sciences Department of Rehabilitation, Physical and Sports Medicine Master’s programme in rehabilitation ASSOCIATION OF NON-SPECIFIC LOWER BACK PAIN IN STUDENTS WITH LIFESTYLE RISK FACTORS Master’s paper in Rehabilitation Author of the paper: Justinas Maliuševskis Supervisor of the paper: doc. dr. Aurelija Šidlauskienė Key terms (key words): non-specific lower back pain, physical activity, psychological stress, anxiety, sleep quality, lifestyle risk factors, students Aim of the paper: To assess the association of non-specific lower back pain with lifestyle risk factors in Vilnius University students. Participants of the research: 131 respondents (74 men and 57 women), aged between 18 and 30 years, took part in the study. All respondents were students at Vilnius University. Methods of the research: The questionnaire consisted of 23 questions. The questionnaire was developed using Google forms survey administration software. The questions were divided into 6 groups: Group I was designed to assess socio-demographic and anthropometric data; Group II was designed to assess the frequency of respondents’ harmful habits; Group III was designed to assess the nature, duration and intensity of respondents’ nonspecific lower back pain; Group IV was designed to assess the quality of their sleep; Group V was designed to assess respondents’ physical activity; and Group VI was designed to assess respondents’ psychological and emotional state. Microsoft Office Excel 2016 and SPSS Statistic 17.0 software packages were used for mathematical analysis of the data. The significance level p < 0.05 was used to determine statistical significance. Objectives: 1. To assess the nature, duration and intensity of non-specific lower back pain experienced by Vilnius University students. 2. To assess lifestyle risk factors in Vilnius University students experiencing non-specific lower back pain. 3. To determine the association of non-specific lower back pain in Vilnius University students with lifestyle risk factors. Conclusions: 1. The majority of students in the study reported intermittent/episodic lower back pain (about 88 % of men and 91 % of women), which usually lasted > 3 months (55 % of men and 61 % of women). Female respondents, compared with male respondents, had a higher intensity of lower back pain both during the study period (3.1 ± 2.7 points and 2.5 ± 2.5 points, respectively) and during the last year (4.4 ± 2.8 points and 3.5 ± 2.4 points); 2. Analysis of lifestyle risk factors in students with non-specific lower back pain showed that men were statistically significantly more likely to smoke (p = 0.002) and drink alcohol (p = 0.02), but women were more likely to sit for long periods of time (p = 0.005) and to have higher levels of perceived anxiety and subjective stress. 3. The study found that the intensity of non-specific lower back pain experienced by men was significantly associated with higher levels of perceived anxiety (p < 0.001), higher levels of subjective stress (p = 0.05) and poorer sleep quality (p = 0.01). In contrast, women’s experience of non-specific lowe back pain was significantly associated with higher alcohol consumption (p = 0.001), lower sleep quality (p = 0.04) and higher levels of anxiety (p = 0.01). |
