Introduction:

Occupational low back pain is one of the most common musculoskeletal disorders in nursing personnel, with an incidence of between 40-80 %.

Objective:

To identify risk factors related to occupational low back pain in nurses. Methods: A descriptive observational study, case series type, was carried out at Camagüey Pediatric Hospital. A sample of 146 nurses was selected and the variables age group, sex, years of service, length of the work day, area of care, risk factors and persistence of low back pain were observed. The Scientific Council and the Ethics Committee approved the research. The principles of the Declaration of Helsinki were taken into account. The data were processed with SPSS.

Results:

The age group of 60 years and over (38.3 %), the female sex (95.8 %), nurses with 15-19 years of service (22.8 %) and 24-hour shifts (34.2 %) stood out. Intensive care units (19.2 %) stood out as an area of care, together with sedentary lifestyle (89.7 %) and peripheral venous insufficiency (53.4 %). The nursing staff under these conditions showed acute low back pain (50.0 %).

Conclusions:

Female sex, advanced age, more than 15 years of work experience, 24-hour days in intensive care, associated with a sedentary lifestyle and extreme postures are predisposing factors for occupational low back pain in nurses.

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