pain intensity and disability among governmental employees and sellers suffering from chronic low back pain

background: the aim of this study was to evaluate the level of disability and pain intensity among two groups of governmental employees and sellers who suffering from chronic low back pain.  material and methods: this descriptive – analytic study was performed from dec 2015to mar 2016among employed staff members of education ministry (n=50) and 40 sellers with chronic low back pain who were selected through non-random sampling method. the research tool was oswetry inventory to inspect the pain intensity and level of disability of the participants. statistical descriptive/analytic method was used to analyze data through spss v16.  results: totally, 90 participants included 50 employees with an average age of 45.14 ± .85 years and 40 sellers with an average age of 45.42 ± 0.98 years took part in this study. the variables as age, weight, height were the same in the two groups (p> 0.05). there were significant difference between the two groups in terms of bmi2.01 (3.42-.59), pain: 0.55 (0.18 –0.92), lifting disability: 0.77 (0.28 to 1.25), walking 1.03 (0.56 to 1.49), sleeping -0.26 (-0.51 -0.002), sexuality 2.07 (1.32 to 2.82), social life. 0.43 (-0.82 -. 03), mean total score of functional disability in performing activities 4.35 (1.93 to 6.77) which were better in the employed group rather than the other group conclusion: this study showed the functional disability and related effective factors were different between employees and sellers. therefore, categorizing individuals who suffering from back pain into homogeneous groups and investigating the effective factors of disability in each group of people are recommended.