Lower back pain triggers: awkward positions, distractions and fatigue

Doing manual tasks that involve awkward positions increase the risk of low back pain by eight times says a study in Arthritis Care & Research. And people who are tired or distracted when doing activities increase their risk of acute low back pain too.
Nearly 10% of the world’s population experience back pain at some point. It is the leading cause of disability according to the World Health Organization, yet little progress has been made to identify prevention strategies.
So experts looked at 999 people who had an acute low back pain episode and asked them to report exposure to 12 physical or psychosocial factors in the 96 hours before the onset of back pain.
The risk of a new episode of low back pain significantly increased due to a range of triggers, from an odds ratio of 2.7 for moderate to vigorous physical activity to 25.0 for distraction during an activity.
Age moderated the effect of exposure to heavy loads, with odds ratio for people 20, 40, or 60 years of age at 13.6, 6.0, and 2.7, respectively.
“Understanding which modifiable risk factors lead to low back pain is an important step toward controlling a condition that affects so many worldwide,” explains Dr Manuela Ferreira, who is involved the work. “Our findings enhance knowledge of low back pain triggers and will assist the development of new prevention programs that can reduce suffering from this potentially disabling condition.”

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Image credit: Andrey