Prevalence and determinants for low back pain among taxi driver assistants in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia,2023: A community based cross- sectional study
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Date
2024-12
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
Background: - Globally Low back pain (LBP) is the most known musculoskeletal problem
which causes limitation of activity and work absenteeism and it is one of the major across-the
broad public health problems. In Ethiopia there is a high burden of LBP in the working
segment of the Ethiopian population including drivers and their assistants. And it is common
problem that indicates the importance of the problem in public health which needs an
attention.
Objective: -The study aims to assess the prevalence and determinants of low back pain
among taxi driver assistants in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Method: A cross-sectional study design was employed among taxi driver assistants in Addis
Ababa from March-July 2023. A total of 633 taxi driver assistants were participated in the
study. A standardized questionnaire adapted from the Nordic questionnaire was used to
collect the information. The data‘s were entered and cleaned using Epi-info version 7.2 and
exported in to SPSS Version 25 software for data analysis. Descriptive statistics were used to
compute means and standard deviations for numerical variables. Bivariate analysis was used
to assess the association between these variables and multiple logistic regressions were
conducted to identify factors predicting low back pain. The threshold for statistical
significance was p<0.05.
Result: - A total of 633 taxi driver assistants with the mean age of 26.3 (±7.3) and the mean
experience of driver assisting 3.9 (±2.6) was participated in this study. Of the 633
participants, 292 (i.e., 46.1%) reported having low back pain at least for one day in the 12
months prior to the survey. Many of the participants mentioned lack of physical exercise
[AOR =6.1,(95% CI, (2.5-15.1)] year of assisting experience [AOR = 3.3 (95% CI, (1.1-9.2)]
and There were also respondents who mentioned sitting on uncomfortable seat while assisting
[AOR=3.2 (95% CI, 2.4-6.9)] as determinant of low back pain by taxi driver assistants in
Addis Ababa.
Conclusion: - Low back pain was found to be common among taxi driver assistants in Addis
Ababa. Occupation and behavior related factors were noted as strong determinants of LBP
among the taxi driver assistants found in the present study. Further study, with an alternative
designs, were recommended to investigate other determinants of low back pain among
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Keywords
Back pain, Taxi driver