The prevalence and associated factors of chronic pain in nurses Iran

Abstract

Background: Chronic pain is a long-term, debilitatingcondition. Nurses experiences pain and functional restrictionsearlier than other groups of people. Therefore, thisstudy was conducted to evaluate the prevalence and associatedfactors of chronic pain in nurses. aMethod: A structured, self-administered questionnairewas used to collect information. Participants included 639registered nurses from a medical center in Bandar Abbas.Results: At the baseline of the study, 64.8% of nursesreported chronic pain. The low back (27.7%, [n=115]),leg (21%, [n=87]), neck (16.7%, [n=63]), head and knee(15.2%, [n=69]), had the highest frequency among thenurses. Age (p<0.001), gender (p<0.001) and type of employment(p=0.04) increased risk of chronic pain. Also,significant difference was found between people with theonset of pain over the past three months and those withonset of pain over more than one year according of employmenthistory and the type of unit (p<0.05), and significantdifference between people with the onset of painover the past three months and those with onset of painover more than one year according to their job. (P<0.05).Conclusion: Results indicate the high prevalence of chronicpain in different parts of the nurses’ body. Most of them,the onset of pain was more than one year. Therefore, itis possible to develop appropriate preventive and educationalprograms by knowing the factors affecting chronicpain and situations increasing the duration of pain.