ABSTRACT

Introduction: Chronic low back pain doesn’t effect only physical health, but also leaves consequences on psychological health and social relationships. It is, therefore, important to observe chronic pain through a biopsychosocial model, instead of the traditional biomedical model.

Aim: To determine the correlation between quality of life and the degree of disability in people who suffer from chronic low back pain.

Materials and methods: Design of this research is cross-sectional study and included 41 participant in the study. Questionnaire of the World Health Organization (WHOQOL-BREF) was used as a measure of quality of life, while the Oswestry questionnaire was used as an instrument for the assessment of disability level in people with chronic low back pain.

Results: Results of this research indicate that there is statistically significant negative correlation (p<0,01) between quality of life in all its domains and the degree of disability, in people with chronic low back pain. Also, this research pointed out that people with severe disability have lower quality of life than people with moderate and mild disability levels in domains of physical health (p<0,01), social relationships (p<0,01) and enviromental domain (p>0,05).

Conclusion: These results are in favor of biopsychosocial approach to chronic low back pain, in regards to traditional biomedical approach.

Key words: lumbosacral spine, pain, quality of life