Low back pain in people with a stoma: A postal survey

Purpose. To investigate whether low back pain (LBP) is a problem for people with a stoma. Method. Following ethical approval, a postal questionnaire was sent to the Ileostomy Association of Northern Ireland (n = 402). Results. The response rate was 81.6%. Two hundred ninety three (72.8%) were included in the analysis. The participants fell into three groups: those who never had LBP (n = 102, 34.8%), those who had LBP but not within the last 6 months (n = 26, 8.9%) and those who had LBP within the last 6 months (n = 165, 56.3%). Participants with LBP (n = 165) compared the ease with which they could carry out everyday tasks: 'before' and 'since' surgery. There was a mean increased difficulty of between 1.75 and 2.26 points across all tasks. The Roland Morris Disability Questionnaire scores ranged from 0 to 24 with 50% having a score of 8/24 or higher. Some participants (n = 76, 46.1%) believed that the stoma surgery was the reason for their back pain, followed by 27.9% (n = 46) blaming weak muscles. Others (53.3%) thought their back pain was worsening. There was a significant rise in the incidence of first episode back pain within a year of surgery. Conclusions. These results suggest that LBP is a problem for people with a stoma.