Prevalence and risk factors of low back pain in garment industry workers of North India

Low back pain (LBP) is the commonest musculoskeletal disorder among industrial workers. The prevalence and risk factors of LBP in garment industry of North India have not been studied thus was the topic of interest. Data was collected from 1329 workers using pre tested questionnaire and clinical examination form. The subjects were divided in to 2 groups: workers with LBP (cases) and workers without LBP (control) based on presence or absence LBP at the time of examination. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was used to determine the risk factors. The point prevalence of LBP was found to be 34.91%. The 12 month prevalence and lifetime prevalence was 41.08% and 39.65% respectively. Workers with history of LBP in the past 12 months (OR= 16.41, 95% CI: 11.90-22.64, p=0.001), married workers (OR= 2.85, 95% CI: 1.83-4.44, p=0.001), those who perceived their work to be excessive (OR=1.42, 95% CI: 1.05-1.92, p=0.022) and those who did unsupervised yoga and gym workout were (OR= 1.37, 95% CI: 1.08-1.75, p=0.009) found to be risk factors for LBP. The prevalence of LBP in garment industry is comparable to that has been reported for industrial workers. There is difficulty in comparing results due to lack of similar studies in garment industry and needs further study.