Background Having a job exposing the load on the lumbar region increases lumbar pain risk. Lumbar pain takes first place in musculoskeletal disorders among health care workers. A survey which investigated musculoskeletal disorders in physiotherapists indicated that the most common musculoskeletal disorders have seen in the lumbar region.

Objectives The aim of this study was to determine the work – related lumbar pain in physiotherapists who work in different fields and differences in terms of occupational and personal variables.

Methods This was a prospective, comparative and multi – central study. Physiotherapists who accepted to participate in this study voluntarily and work at any of paediatric, orthopaedic and neurological fields were received. Eighty – eight physiotherapists were taken first assessment. Their demographic information were taken and they filled out the Oswestry Low Back Disability Questionnaire. Twenty – nine cases who had any orthopaedic disease, surgical history and did not fill the entire of the Oswestry Low Back Disability Questionnaire excluded from the study. Twenty – eight women and 31 men met the criteria for inclusion.

Physiotherapists were divided into three groups as paediatric (n=21), orthopaedic (n=24) and neurological (n=14). Lumbar pain level, the number of daily patient transfer, daily working hours and daily standing working hours in three groups were compared. One – way ANOVA was used to compare the groups. SPSS v11.5 was used for the statistical analysis.

Results There were no significant differences in lumbar pain levels between groups (p=0.342). Daily standing working hours of paediatric group were significantly less than orthopaedic group (p=0.021) and the number of daily patient transfer were significantly higher in paediatric group according to orthopaedic group (p=0.028). Daily standing working hours and the number of daily patient transfer of neurological group had no differences between other groups (p=0.173).

Conclusions We think that the reason why no differences between the pain level of paediatric and orthopaedic group may be due to more daily transfers in paediatric group and more daily standing working hours in orthopaedic group. The cause why no differences between neurological field and others, might be because of another working factors which we did not assessed. There is a need for research examining in detail on working conditions and trials including more cases.

Disclosure of Interest None declared