Profile of nursing professionals and their characteristics as to the intensity of low back pain in a Hospital of Brazil

Objective: To describe the profile of nursing workers in a hospital in Brazil and to compare sociodemographic, lifestyle, labor, anthropometric and bio-psychosocial variables regarding pain intensity. Methods: This is a cross-sectional study. After applying an initial questionnaire to select participants, was applied a lifestyle questionnaire, and the Back Screening Tool questionnaire (SBST-Brazil). It was also collected the pain level by Visual Analog Scale (VAS), and the body weight and height, to calculate the Body Mass Index. The professionals were divided according to the intensity of pain: VAS <5 (mild/moderate) and VAS ≥5 (moderate/severe). Results: The sample (n= 53) was composed of females, with an average age of 32.2 years (SD 8.5), single, without children, with a predominance of nursing technicians (81.1%), and an average of 80.7 months of work. The presence of 54.7% overweight was observed. As for SBST-Brazil, there was a low risk of poor low back pain prognosis and workers with medium/high risk had a higher level of pain, in addition to an increase in the chances of 7.5 (95% CI 2.08-27.01) greater pain in professionals with medium/high risk. Conclusion: There was a predominance of mild/moderate low back pain and an association of bio-psychosocial assessment variables with pain intensity.