INTRODUCTION: Low back pain modifies and limits both physical and psychosocial aspects of elderly life and often requires changes that cause disorders personal, family, reduced functional capacity. OBJECTIVE: To verify the prevalence of non-specific low back pain (LBP) in a sample of community-dwelling elderly and to determine the existing correlation between the variables: sex, body mass index, functional disability and depressive symptoms. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Fifty-four healthy community-dwelling elderly joined this study (72 ± 5.2 years). The clinical, social and demographic characteristics were assessed through a semi-structured questionnaire and the LBP, through the McGill Pain Questionnaire. The Rolland Morris Questionnaire (RM-BR) was used to measure the disability of the subjects with spine dysfunctions. Depressive symptoms and the general level of physical activity were assessed, respectively, by using the reduced version of the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS¬¬-15) and the Human Activity Profile. RESULTS: A high positive correlation was found between the presence of DL, functional disability (RM-BR) (rs = 0.774, p = 0.00) and depressive symptoms (GDS-15) (rs = 0.271, p = 0.048). No correlation was evidenced between BMI (rs = 0.178; p = 0.197), sex (rs = -0.073; p = 0.599) and LBP. CONCLUSION: High prevalence of non-specific LBP in the sample elderly studied was observed. Functional disability and depression were shown to be strongly associated with DL conditions in elderly community need to be addressed for greater effectiveness of the proposed therapeutic.
Elderly; Low back pain; Depression
