Int.J.Curr.Microbiol.App.Sci (2018) 7(12): 499-507 499 Original Research Article https://doi.org/10.20546/ijcmas.2018.712.062 Low Back Pain Assessment of Farm Women involved in Sericulture Swapnali Borah* and Stephanie K. Sangma Department of Family Resource Management, College of Community Science, Central Agricultural University, India *Corresponding author ABSTRACT Introduction Low back pain is a universal human experience that almost everyone has at some point. The lower back, which starts just below the ribcage, is called the lumbar region. Pain here can be intense and is one of the top causes for which people are often missing their work. Low back pain (LBP) is a symptom of a pain which can be localised between the twelfth rib and the inferior gluteal folds (low back), with or without leg pain from various causes (Krismer and Van Tulder, 2007), but is not a disease. Symptoms of low back pain can range from a dull ache to a stabbing or shooting sensation. The pain may also make it very hard to move properly or stand up straight. Acute back pain comes on suddenly, often after an injury from sports or heavy lifting. Pain that lasts for more than International Journal of Current Microbiology and Applied Sciences ISSN: 2319-7706 Volume 7 Number 12 (2018) Journal homepage: http://www.ijcmas.com The present study on ―Low back pain assessment of Farm women involved in Sericulture‖ was done to assess the musculoskeletal discomforts faced by farm women who are actively involved in Sericulture industry. Low back pain is a universal experience that every human has at some point. It is a symptom of a pain that can be found between the twelfth rib and the inferior gluteal folds of the body. Sericulture is an important industry in the rural areas of Meghalaya where rural women are involved. The study was done in two villages of Samanda Block in East Garo Hills district of Meghalaya. Personal interview method was used to collect the data. While assessing low back pain in women, findings showed that most women had suffered low back pain which hindered their ability to walk, sit, stand and bend. It was also found that the intensity of pain was highest while removing worms from cocoons which require them to squat and bend for long hours. Further analysis showed that severity of pain was more in lower back in comparison to upper back. It was also found that due to low back pain 30 per cent of the farm women were affected in their sleep and 33 per cent of women were interfered by the pain in their ability to stand for long hours and 27 per cent could not stand for more than an hour in the past 2 weeks. It was also found that 23 per cent women were not able to sit comfortably in chairs and 17 per cent could not sit for more than an hour. Low back pain was also found to have interfered the farm women in their ability to walk as 47 per cent of the women could not walk for more than an hour. It was also found that low back pain had prevented some of the women from carrying out their daily activities (23%) and some women were mildly and moderately affected by pain in their leisure activities (67% and 30% respectively). Keywords Sericulture, Rural Women, Lower back pain, Upper Back Pain, Rural Industry Accepted: 07 November 2018 Available Online: 10 December 2018 Article Info