Non-specific low back pain is a clinical condition which can occur in association with many different causes. Various risk factors for non-specific low back pain include nutritional habits. Excessive caffeine intake is thought to increase the low back pain and the several studies have been conducted about this topic. In this study, the patients with chronic low back pain were compared with the healthy controls without low back pain of the same gender and same age in terms of caffeine intake and nutritional habits.

50 healthy subjects and 49 patients with non-specific low back pain, aged between 20-65 years, which referred to the outpatient clinic were included to the study. The pain activity of the patients was evaluated with visual analog scale (VAS). The nutritional habits and the caffeine intake of the patients were interrogated using the form. The consumption was calculated using the form.

The patient group included 25 women and 24 men whose average age was 44±13 years. The control group included 25 women and 25 men whose average age was 42±18 years. The daily caffeine intake was 328±118 mg/day for the patient group and 289±135 mg/day for the control group. The difference was not found to be statistically significant (p>0.05). In the patients group, no correlation between VAS and daily caffeine intake was found. It was observed that there was no significant difference between the groups in terms of taking sour and fatty foods (p>0.05).

In this study which was conducted with a limited patient group, no relation was found between the nutritional habits and caffeine intake and non-specific low back pain.

Non-specific low back pain Caffeine intake Nutrition