Dor lombar e transtornos mentais comuns na estratégia de saúde da família: uma associação pouco reconhecida

Abstract

Lumbar pain is a problem of high prevalence in Primary Care, positively associated with psychological distress. Our objective was to describe the sociodemographic profile of patients with lumbar pain and to investigate the association between lumbar pain and depression, anxiety and somatization. This is a multicenter cross-sectional study with 1,857 patients seen in the Family Health Strategy (Estratégia de Saúde da Família, in Portuguese) in four Brazilian capitals. The following instruments were applied: somatization screening (SOMS), hospital anxiety and depression scale (HAD), General Patient Questionnaire for sociodemographic data and the Assisting Health Care Professional form, where information related to medical consultations was registered. Lumbar pain was divided in three categories: self-reported complaint with a frequency of 7%, symptom recorded by the physician with a 5% frequency rate, and physician-confirmed diagnosis of lumbar pain with a frequency of 2%. Regarding the sociodemographic profile, 77.3% were women with more than four years of schooling and per capita income lower than 1.5 minimum wage. We found a significant association of self-reported complaint of lumbar pain with anxiety (OR = 1.5, 95% CI) and somatization (OR = 1.8, 95% CI) but not with depression. Patients who presented a self-reported complaint of lumbar pain, but the symptom was not registered by the physician, presented even stronger associations with anxiety (OR = 1.6, 95% CI) and somatization (OR = 2.3, 95% CI). This study identified significant associations of lumbar pain with anxiety and somatization.