Introduction:

low back pain is the leading cause of absenteeism and disability among the working population. The aim of this study was to describe the clinical-epidemiological factors in patients with low back pain and to analyze the relationship between job satisfaction and absenteeism.

Material and Methods:

a descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted in the care service of the Mutual Fremap in León. The workers who came with low back pain between 1 July and 31 December 2016 were included. A survey and the scale of Job Satisfaction of Warr, Cook and Wall (Spanish version) were conducted among them. Participation was voluntary, respecting the confidentiality of the data. The computer program IBM SPSS version 23 for statistical analysis was used.

Results:

100 workers with low back pain of which 67% were men with a mean age of 43 years participated in the study. 47% did not do any physical activity/sport per week and 56 % suffered from overweight and obesity. The 56 % of them work in the services and food sectors and 92% of the sample do a light and intense physical. The main mechanism that produced the low back pain was the handling of loads in a 42% of the cases, being the 57% of the processes dealt with recurring back pain. The 70% of back pain did not require time off work. The score on the scale of job satisfaction was of 58.23 points in patients who were off work during the treatment and 67.71 points for those who did not require it, being this difference statistically significant (p=0.002).

Conclusions:

back pain of workers with worse job satisfaction generated increased absenteeism. The results showed that overweight and lack of physical activity were factors very present among workers with low back pain. A large number of recurring back pain was found, which is particularly alarming because it increases the risk of chronicity. It is necessary to delve into the investigation of the influence of the psychosocial factors in the absenteeism due to low back pain and at the same time raise programs which equip workers with knowledge and tools to prevent and deal successfully with future lumbar episodes.

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