Examination of Correlations Between Core Stability, Low Back Pain and Stress in the Staff of the Hungarian National Ambulance Service

OBJECTIVES: Ambulance workers are exposed to high levels of physical and mental strain as a result of their work. Our goal was to investigate the correlations between their lower back pain, stress, quality of life and core stability.

METHODS: This study was carried out at four ambulance stations of the Hungarian National Ambulance Service with 100 people between July and August in 2021. Inclusion criteria: age between 18-65, position as a field worker at least one year. Excluding criteria: surgery in the last 6 months, spine disease requiring surgery, neurological symptoms and radiating pain. We used Perceived Stress Scale (PSS), Short Form 36 (SF-36) quality of life survey, Oswestry Low Back Pain Disability Questionnaire (ODI), Low Back Pain Knowledge Questionnaire (LKQ) and PostureScreen application. The applied tests were Leg-Lowering (LLT)-, Core- and Kraus Weber-tests (KW). Data analysis was performed with IBM SPSS Statistics 25 and Microsoft Office Excel 2013: Kruskal-Wallis-, Mann Whitney-U-, Chi-squared-, T-tests, ANOVA, Pearson- Spearman correlation (p<0.05).

RESULTS: 54% of the ambulance workers suffered from lower back pain. In PSS they scored 20.22±7.92 (male:19.79±7.67, female:24.56±9.53). In SF-36 women performed significantly worse than men (587.61±87.25-647.72±93.07, p=0.038). We found significant correlation between quality of life and pain (p<0,001, r=-0,442); quality of life and stress (p<0.001, r=-0.703), working years and stress level (p=0.016, r=-0.241). In LLT 50% achieved acceptable result and there was a significant difference between people with low back pain and those not (p=0.034). In KW the average score was 49.89±8.99. The respondents scored 15.65±4.25 point in LKQ (maximum 24) and the total score was related to the position held (p<0.05).

CONCLUSIONS: Our results show that many ambulance workers live with low back pain and high stress level that affect their quality of life. More attention should be paid to the physical and mental health of them.