Low Back Pain and Obesity in Primary Health Care, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Objective: To assess the prevalence of obesity and its association with low bark pain in patients attending health rare centres. Methods: A case-control study of 2460 Arab patients attending urban and rural health centres in Riyadh region was conducted during Jan-Feb 1993. Twelve health centres participated in the study. All patients attending the health centres with low bark pain (cases) were compared with patients free from bark pain (non-cases) Results: The mean ages were 34 years for males and 32 years for females. Only 17.6% cases can be considered as non-obese compared with 42.6% non-obese among non-cases. The mean body mass index (BMI) of cases was 306 ± 6.1 kg/m 2 compared with 26.7 ± 5.8 kg/m 2 of non-cases (p < 0.01)