Lower Back Pain Leading Cause of Job Disability, Especially in Western Countries
A new study that examined rates of lower back pain across the world concluded that it was the leading global cause of job-related disability, especially in westernized countries.
Researchers analyzed data from 117 studies in 47 different countries, and concluded that, of nearly 300 conditions worldwide, lower back pain was the cause of one-third of job-related disability.
“Low back pain is something that almost all people experience at some point in their lives. It is something common across sexes, age groups, countries, socioeconomic groups, education levels and occupation,” said the lead author of the first study, Damian Hoy, a senior research fellow at the University of Queensland’s School of Population Health, in Australia.
Dr. Tim Driscoll of the University of Sydney, in Australia, reported that people working in agriculture, animal husbandry, forestry, fishing and hunting were more likely to suffer chronic lower back pain and experience disability due to chronic pain than other professions. “Blue collar” workers had a 54% greater risk of developing disability due to lower back pain, while service industry workers had a 47% chance of developing chronic lower back pain.
“For the majority of people with low back pain, the specific cause is unclear,” he said, but “there are certain factors that seem to put people at risk of having low back pain.”
Lower back pain can be caused by a variety of factors including stress, depression, anxiety, old age, obesity, and physically-strenuous jobs, especially jobs that require heavy lifting. Treatments for lower back pain range from applying heat or ice, taking pain medications (including prescription painkillers in some extreme cases), and even surgery for the worst incidents of lower back pain.
“Back pain is the number one cause of lost work days in the U.S,” said Dr. Anders Cohen, chief of neurosurgery and spine surgery at the Brooklyn Hospital Center, in New York City.
According to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders (NIND), Americans spend $50 million every year on treatments for lower back pain. However, while looking into all types of lower back pain treatments, the study found that exercise was the most effective long-term treatment for lower back pain.
“Exercise may be the most effective way to speed recovery from low back pain and help strengthen back and abdominal muscles. Maintaining and building muscle strength is particularly important for persons with skeletal irregularities,” the NINDS wrote on its website.
However, the study’s authors point out that disability related to chronic pain, especially the huge number of people that suffer from chronic lower back pain, is not getting enough attention.
“Governments, health service and research providers and donors need to pay far greater attention to the burden that low back pain causes than what they had done previously,” the authors wrote.
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