Beck Depression Inventory Score and Associated Factors in Korean Patients with Lumbar Spinal Stenosis

Background: Depression is a frequent comorbid disease of chronic pain patients. This study was conducted to evaluate the prevalence of depression and to correlate associated factors and depression in patients with spinal stenosis. Methods: The data of this survey was collected from 97 patients that visited our pain clinic for the management of lumbar spinal stenosis. Depression was examined by a self-reported survey using the Korean of the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI). The Oswestry Disability Index (ODI) and the life satisfaction scale score were also obtained. Demographic and clinical characteristics (including spouse status, employment, smoking status, the number of patients with multiple painful areas, the number of patients with combined disease, pain duration, visual analogue scale, Roland 5-point scale and walking distance) were obtained from interview with the patient. The patients were divided into group N (BDI ≤ 14, n = 43) and group D (BDI＞ 14, n = 54) according to the BDI scale. Of the 97 patients, 55.7% had a high BDI score. Results: The patients in group N had a higher rate of employment (48.0%, P ＜ 0.05) and had higher life satisfaction scale scores (9.4 ± 2.5, P ＜ 0.01) as compared to group D patients. The BDI score showed a close correlation with employment status and the life satisfaction scale. Conclusions: Many lumbar spinal stenosis patients had high BDI scores. Employment status and the life satisfaction scale were closely correlated with the BDI score.