• Robert Amesiya, Mallon Nyati, Gonzaga Waiswa, and Erisa S Mwaka.
• Department of Orthopaedics, College of Health Sciences, Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda.
• Afr Health Sci. 2023 Mar 1; 23 (1): 565574565-574.

BackgroundLow back pain is the leading global cause of years lost to disability. The study aimed to assess the health-related quality of life in patients with low back pain attending an outpatient clinic at a national referral hospital in Uganda.MethodsThis was a hospital based cross-sectional study that involved 250 adult patients with low back pain. Data were collected using the modified short form-36 Health Survey questionnaire. Data were summarised using descriptive statistics. Analysis of Variance, the F-test and linear regression analysis were used for inferential statistics.ResultMajority of participants were female (66.4%) with a mean age of 60 years (SD 12.9, range 20- 87) and 44.6% were manual labourers. 70% of participants had had low back pain for more than one year and 74% had neuropathic symptoms. The total quality of life of participants was poor with a mean score of 31.9 (SD 15.6). The factors that significantly influenced quality of life included performing manual work (p=0.01), being unemployed (p=0.027) and weakness in the lower limbs (p=0.01).ConclusionPatients with low back pain had a poor quality of life that was significantly influenced by being unemployed, doing manual work and clinical features of nerve compression.© 2023 Amesiya R et al.

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