Prevalence of low back pain in Nepal: Results from a nationally representative WHO STEPS survey

Low back pain is the leading cause of disability globally. Most prevalence data for low back pain come from high-income countries. Data from low-and middle-income countries such as Nepal are currently lacking. This study aimed to estimate one-month prevalence of low back pain in Nepal using a nationally representative sample and present the prevalence estimates by socio-demographic characteristics. We used national population-based survey data from the World Health Organisation (WHO) STEPwise Approach to Non-communicable Disease Risk Factor Surveillance (STEPS) survey conducted in Nepal from February to May 2019 with people aged 15 to 69 years. We reported the age-standardised low back pain prevalence (95% CI). We used univariate and multivariable logistic regression to assess the associations between sociodemographic variables and the presence of low back pain and results were presented as odds ratios. A total of 5593 people aged 15 to 69 years participated in the survey. The response rate was 86.4%. The age-standardised prevalence of activity limiting low back pain was 23.2% (95% CI: 21.9% to 24.5%). Older people were more likely to have low back pain than younger people. For example, people aged 55-69 years had over 4 times higher odds of having low back pain than people aged 15-24 years [odds ratio: 4.06 (95%CI= 2.57 to 6.42)]. Females had 1.74 times higher odds of having low back pain than males [odds ratio: 1.74 (95%CI= 1.45 to 2.09)]. The results of our study show that a quarter of adults are affected by low back pain in Nepal; with women and older people more likely to experience low back pain. PERSPECTIVE: This study shows that a quarter of adults are affected by low back pain in Nepal. Women and older people are more likely to experience back pain in Nepal.