Clinical trends in patients with low back ache; an epidemiological study in a tertiary care centre

Low back pain is an extremely common health problem throughout the world. It is one of the common causes of activity limitation and work absentism and hence causes great economic burden on our country. Low back ache has multifactorial etiology. Aim of this observatiobal study that was conducted from December 2013 to December 2014, was to know about the clinical trends of low backache in patients and its distribution with respect to age, sex and occupation. Present study was conducted on 1800 patients at post graduate department of orthopaedics G.M.C Jammu on out patient department basis. In this study low back ache was seen more common in third and fourth decade, more in males but with female preponderance in the geriatric age group. Low back ache was more common in non sedentary occupation group of population. Duration of low back ache was mostly two months to two years. Most of the etiological causes were responsible for mechanical back ache.