Introduction: A survey was conducted among the personnel of Southport and Ormskirk Hospitals NHS Trust to determine the prevalence of spinal pain and the factors that could be related.

Materials and Methods: 200 questionnaires were distributed. Participation was voluntary. Details of sex, age, weight, smoking habits, previous accidents, compensation claims, details of work place, personal habits and presence of pain in the Neck, Thoracic spine, Lower Back and limbs were collected.

Results: Completed data was available only from 122 respondents (61%) who comprised of 16 HCAs, 42 Nurses, 5 OTs, 39 Physiotherapists 15 Theatre Practitioners and 5 others. The average age was 39.5 years. 92 (75.4%) had pain in at least one spinal region. 30 (24.6%) had no spinal pain. 35 (28.7%) had pain in the all the three regions of the spine. 83 of the respondents had Lower back followed by 53 having neck pain. 51 had of mid back pain. 15 of the 39 physiotherapists (38.5%) reported that they had no pain in any region of the spine. This contrasted with the Occupational Therapists in whom none of the 5 (0%) reported a pain free spine. There was no correlation between pain and Age, Sex or Weight. Twenty (16.4%) respondents smoked and the average spinal pain among smokers was 8.45 whilst that of non smokers was 5.03. (p< 0.05).

Conclusions: Among the groups tested the physiotherapists seemed to have healthy backs. Our results from a small survey show a clear correlation between smoking and back pain. These results seem to suggest that health promotion to decrease back pain should promote quitting smoking.

Conflicts of Interest: None

Source of Funding: None