Elsevier

International Journal of Surgery

Volume 56, August 2018, Pages 288-293
International Journal of Surgery

Original Research
A retrospective cross-sectional survey of non-specific lower back pain among a cohort of Chinese army soldiers

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijsu.2018.06.023Get rights and content
Under an Elsevier user license
open archive

Highlights

  • Our study has a large sample size.

  • The research method of this study is more credible.

  • We found an important risk factor for LBP in the Chinese army.

  • Our study shows that LBP is a high incidence of disease among young people in China.

Abstract

Research background

Nonspecific lower back pain (LBP) has been a major public health problem in western countries since the second half of the 20 t h century. The trend has expanded to non-western countries, and LBP is currently a significant cause of disability in the working population.

Objective

To investigate the prevalence of nonspecific lower back pain (LBP) and its risk factors among soldiers in the Chinese army.

Methods

A total of 2876 Chinese army soldiers were requested to complete a self-administered questionnaire on demographic, anthropometric factors, and their non-specific LBP symptoms. The LBP evaluation and risk factor analysis were based on the self-questionnaire survey.

Results

The prevalence of non-specific LBP with physical state, one-child family, educational status, resident location and ethnicity were not associated (P > 0.05); while smoking, LBP history, LBP family history, nightmare frequency, sleep quality, and self-perceived fitness had significant effects on LBP (P < 0.05, Table 2). Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that smoking (OR = 2.153,95% CI = 1.045–4.433), History of LBP (OR = 2.503,95% CI = 1.580–3.966), LBP family history (OR = 1.615,95%CI = 1.015–2.572), nightmare frequency (OR = 3.386, 95% CI = 2.047–5.603), sleep quality (OR = 2.391, 95% CI = 1.085–5.269) and self-perceived fitness (OR = 1.93,95%CI = 1.045–3.765) had significant effects on LBP (P < 0.05)) (Table 3).

Conclusions

Smoking, history of LBP, LBP family history, nightmare frequency, sleep quality, self-perceived fitness were important factors in the occurrence and persistence of LBP.

Keywords

Lower back pain
Prevalence
Chinese army soldiers
Cross-sectional study
Fitness

Cited by (0)

1

Gejin Wei and Haoxi Li contributed equally to this work.

2

Gejin Wei and Haoxi Li are co-first authors on this work.