Association of Quality of Life with Depression in Patients with Chronic Low Back Pain

Abstract

Objective: The objectives of this study were to evaluate prevalence of depression and extent of disbility among patients with chronic Low Back Pain and to observe the association between the quality of life and depression in these patients.

Methodology: It was a cross-sectional study. A convenient sampling technique was used for data collection. One hundred and seventy eight patients suffering from chronic low back pain were selected from study population. Data was collected using two questionnaires. For assessing depression, Beck's depression scale was used and for measuring Quality of Life , the Oswestry Disability index was used. SPSS 20 was used for data analysis. A p value of <0.05 was considered statistically significant and qualitative variables were presented as frequencies and percentages.

Results: Seventy-one percent of the patients belonged to female gender. 53.9 % of the LBP patients had moderate disability while 20.8% had severe disability and 2.2% were belonging to the crippled category as measured on Oswestry inventory. The Beck's depression scale revealed that 43.3% of the patients suffered from mild mood disturbance, 10.7% had borderline clinical depression , 13.5% and 1.1% patients suffered from moderate and severe depression respectively. Cross tabulation was done between the Oswestry inventory and beck's depression scale. A significant association (p value =
0.001) was revealed between quality of life and depression in LBPpatients.

Conclusion: Majority of the chronic Lower Back Pain patients suffered from moderate levels of disability and mild mood disturbances while a significant association was found between quality of life and depression in these patients highlighting the need for better pain management and follow up to mitigate these negative impacts of chronic lower back pain.