Psychosocial morbidity, HRQoL worse among people with lower back pain

People with lower back pain (LBP) suffer from heightened psychological morbidity, leading to worse health-related quality of life (HRQoL) and loss in productivity, a recent study has found.

The researchers conducted a cross-sectional analysis on 871 people with LBP. Outcomes included functional mobility, psychological morbidity, and QoL assessed using the Modified Oswestry Low Back Pain Disability Questionnaire (MODQ), Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS-21), and Short Form-12 version 2 (SF12V2) tools, respectively.

At the 1-year follow-up, MODQ results were available in 698 patients, 68 percent (n=478) of whom reported having minimal or moderate functional disability; 32 percent, on the other hand, had severe disabilities, or were crippled or bed-bound. In terms of psychological morbidity, the mean DASS-21 score was 11.87±4.05, with 32 percent and 2 percent suffering from moderate and severe depression, respectively.

Anxiety was also aggravated among LBP participants, earning a mean DASS-21 score of 8.32±4.48. Eighteen percent of patients had mild, 30 percent had moderate, and nine percent had severe anxiety. Stress was likewise high, with a mean score of 13.7±5.98. Two percent of participants had severe stress.

In turn, HRQoL was negatively affected in LBP participants, such that mean scores in the physical and mental summary components of the SF12V2 were 47.9±7.4 and 42.2±10.4, respectively.

“To our best knowledge, this is the largest study of LBP evaluating psychological morbidity, disability, and HRQoL in an Indian population. LBP results in significant disability, which critically affects the QoL of the patients,” the researchers said.