[Risk factors associated with lower back pain in the Polyclinic of Algology]

To study the risk factors associated with lower back pain such as age, gender, marital status, occupation, education level, smoking and alcohol consumption among patients who presented to the Algology Polyclinic.

The patients' age, gender, occupation, marital status, education, economic level, smoking and alcohol consumption were evaluated and recorded on a "Pain Assessment Form". The highest level of education level was asked and when economic level was questioned, the answers of patients were considered without restricrion between limits.

Out of 772 patients, 200 had mechanical lower back pain. 23.5% had hernia nucleous pulposus, 20% had facet joint degeneration, 18.5% had a narrow spinal channel, 7.5% had sakroiliac joint degeneration, 20.1% had more than one pathology, and 10.5% had other pathologies. Lower back pain did not differ according to age and gender. Students had significantly lower pain, whereas workers had significantly higher lower back pain (p=0.005). Of the patients with lower back pain, 170 of them were married and 30 were widowed or single (p=0.059). With higher education, pain was significantly decreased (p=0.001). More pain was reported among individuals with low socioeconomic level (p=0.042). There was a correlation between lower back pain and smoking (p=0030), but there was no correlation between lower back pain and alcohol consumption (p=0.638).

Lower education, lower economic level, labor intensive jobs and smoking were correlated with lower back pain. It was concluded that by taking precautions that lower risk factors, incidence of lower back pain can be decreased.