Occupational low back pain and job satisfaction among taxi drivers in Cameroon

Abstract

Background

Low back pain (LBP) is the most prevalent musculoskeletal disorder (MSD) impacting all socioeconomic groups across the global population. There is a need to define good prevention strategies among taxi drivers in Cameroon.

Objective

This study aimed to assess the prevalence of LBP and its relationship with job satisfaction (JS) among taxi drivers in Bafoussam, Cameroon.

Methods

We conducted a cross-sectional study from April to August 2023 including 321 male drivers with a minimum of one year of experience driving a taxi aged 21 years or more based in Bafoussam. We used an exhaustive sampling method and performed bivariate analysis to determine associations in variables, the significance level was set at p < 0.05 and the confidence interval (CI) was set at 95%.

Results

The past 12 months’ prevalence of LBP was 73.2% and the proportion of job dissatisfaction was 65.7%. Factors associated to the occurrence of LBP were: being unmarried (aOR:2.82; CI:1.70–4.69; P < 0.001) and practicing another job (aOR: 2.82; CI: 1.64–4.82; P < 0.001). Significative negative correlation has been found between the occurrence of LBP and alcohol consumption (aOR: 0.39; CI:0.22- 0.68; P = 0.001). And there were no association between JS and LBP.

Conclusions

LBP was highly prevalent among taxi drivers, but no association was found between job dissatisfaction and LBP. These findings highlight the need to improve drivers’ working conditions and further investigate other factors that may contribute to LBP in this population.