Psychosocial factors and low back pain among college students.

Objective And Participants: The authors evaluated psychosocial factors of stress and their effects on the prevalence of low back pain (LBP) among a population of college students in a major university in Colorado.

Methods: This was a nested cross-sectional study of 973 respondents who completed the National College Health Assessment survey. The authors evaluated a subset of questions pertaining to psychosocial stressors against the presence of LBP.

Results: The annual prevalence of LBP among the population studied was 42.8%. The stressful psychosocial variables of feeling very sad, exhausted, and overwhelmed were associated with the prevalence of LBP.

Conclusions: The prevalence of LBP among this younger population is significant and understudied.