low back pain and related disability among students of islamic azad university, tehran iran

background: low back pain is the most common cause of disability and absence from work among young and middle-aged people. as there is limited knowledge regarding this problem among iranian students, this study aimed to determine the preva­lence of low back pain and its ‘related socio­demo­graphic factors among students of islamic azad university, tehran, iran.    material and methods: this is a cross-sectional study in which 200 students of islamic azad university were selected purposively. demographic questionnaire and ronald-morris disability scale were used to collect data regarding characteristics and disability caused by back pain. data were entered spss 16 and analyzed through descriptive and analytic statistics.   results: in total, 190 students including78 (41%) men and 112 (59%) women were assessed. of all studied students 113 individuals 65.9 %were suffering from low back pain and 91 students (47.8 %) were suffering from pain_ related disability. body mass index (bmi) was normal in most participants. there was significant negative relationship between low back pain and physical activity (p= 0.006).    conclusion: to sum up, the results of this study verified a significant relationship among low back pain and disability. moreover, the students who were more active and were living in good socio-economic status were less probably to suffer from low back pain and disability