Lower Back Pain, Physical Activity and the Quality of Life

Abstract

Lumbar pain is one of the key problems that affects people with reduced physical activity. This study aims at identifying different frequencies of pain in patients with lumbar syndrome and to determine differences in their quality of life. From a total sample of 202 subjects (93 men and 109 women, mean age 47.5 ± 13.85 years), 3 subsamples of respondents were stratified depending on the frequency of back pain: those with occasional back pain, those with frequent episodes of back pain and those whose episodes of back pain occur very often. The data in the study were collected using a measuring instrument, which is intended to be used for self-assessment of the quality of life. The non-parametric statistical method Chi-squared test was used to determine the differences between groups of subjects. Statistically significant differences (p = 0.00) were identified in three analyzed variables: I can declare that my quality of life is, How would you assess your physical fitness and How often do you walk continuously for 60 minutes, whereby the survey results obtained for the variable assessing the quality of life significantly differ in favor of respondents who only occasionally experience pain compared to the other two groups of respondents who reported frequent or very frequent incidences of back pain. Respondents occasionally affected with lower back pain had a better assessment of their lives, their physical fitness was at a higher level and were shown to be more active when it came to continuous walking for 60 minutes.