Functional capacity and its associated factors in the elderly with low back pain

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To assess the level of functional capacity in subjects aged 60 years and older, who have lower back pain, and its association with demographic, socioeconomic, work-related, lifestyle-related and disease mentioned variables. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted with 246 elderly registered at the Family Health Strategy of Vila São Paulo, Bauru,SP, Brazil, who reported lower back pain and were sampled by a two-stage cluster technique. The subjects were interviewed at home by using a multidimensional instrument (demographic; socioeconomic aspects; life style; work characterization; disease mentioned), and also the IPAQ, the Nordic and the Roland Morris questionnaires. A bivariate and multivariate descriptive logistic regression analysis was carried out. RESULTS: The prevalence of lower back pain in men was of 25.1% and in women it was of 35.1%. The mean score in the functional capacity assessment was 10.46 ± 5.62. A fraction of 67.5% of the elderly demonstrated an inappropriate functional capacity. The age group from 70 to 80 years old, the subjects reporting three or more diseases and the sedentary group presented an independent association with inappropriate functional capacity. CONCLUSION: The older, sedentary subjects and who reported more than three diseases presented low functional capacity. Level of Evidence III, Cross Sectioning.

Correlations between low back pain and functional capacity among the elderly

“…As with other studies, there was an association between low back pain and functional limitation, which mainly restricted occupational and leisure activities 22,23 . According to Ocarino et al 24 , low back pain can lead to a deficiency in both functional and physical performance.…”

Prevalence and factors associated with neck pain: a population-based study

“…Race (white, black, mulatto) was noted by the interviewers and income was based on the minimum wage (MW) (low: up to 3 times the MW; middle: from 4 to 9 times the MW; and high: 10 or more times the MW). 17 …”

“…In order to define the association between neck pain and ergonomic variables, the frequencies obtained in the categories “never” and “rarely” were added and categorized into a single group; the same was done to the categories “generally” and “always”. 17 …”

Prevalence and factors associated with low back pain in elderly registered in the Family Health Strategy

“…To define the association between low back pain and ergonomic variables, the frequencies obtained in the categories "never" and "rarely" were added and classified into a single group. The same was done in the categories "often" and "always" (3,14).…”