KINESIOPHOBIA: FREQUENCY, ASSOCIATED FACTORS AND IMPACT ON THE LIFE QUALITY OF PARTICIPANTS WITH CHRONIC LOW BACK PAIN IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA

The aim: To study the frequency of kinesiophobia, the associated factors and its impact on the life quality in black Africa of participants with chronic low back pain. Materials and methods: It was a cross-sectional, descriptive and analytical study, conducted over the period extending from March 2019 through September 2019. The study population included all black African participants with chronic low back pain who were seeking care at the rheumatology and physical medicine departments, during the study period. Pain intensity, duration of symptoms, medical history, endurance of trunk muscles, kinesiophobia index, and quality of life were assessed. We used the Visual Analog Scale (VAS) to measure pain intensity, the Shirado-Ito and Sorensen tests to assess trunk muscles endurance. The kinesiophobia index, as well as its impact on life quality were measured using the "Tampa Scale for Kinesiophobia" (TSK), and the Dallas Auto-Questionnaire (D.R.A.D) scale for spine Pain respectively. Results: One hundred and twenty patients were involved. Eighty-five patients (70.83%) had kinesiophobia. The factors associated with kinesiophobia included pain intensity (p = 0.0006); duration of symptoms (p = 0.027); hypertension (p = 0.03). Loss of endurance in trunk muscles, weight and gender were not found to be factors associated with kinesiophobia. Based on the DALLAS self-questionnaire, the quality of life was altered. Conclusions: Kinesiophobia was a recurrent disease. It was associated with the presence of hypertension, the intensity of pain, the duration of the low back pain with an impairment in quality of life.