New research reveals the physical and psychosocial factors that significantly increase the risk of low back pain onset. In fact, results published in the journal Arthritis Care & Research show that being engaged in manual tasks involving awkward positions will increase the risk of low back pain by 8 times.
Those who are distracted during activities or fatigued also significantly increase their risk of acute low back pain.
“Understanding which risk factors contribute to back pain and controlling exposure to these risks is an important first step in prevention,” said Manuela Ferreira, PhD, George Institute for Global Health and Sydney Medical School, University of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. “Our study is the first to examine brief exposure to a range of modifiable triggers for an acute episode of low back pain.”
For the case-crossover study, researchers recruited 999 participants from 300 primary care clinics in Sydney, Australia, who had an acute low back pain episode between October 2011 and November 2012. Study subjects were asked to report exposure to 12 physical or psychosocial factors in the 96 hours prior to 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. The researchers found that age moderated the effect of exposure to heavy loads, with odds ratio for individuals 20, 40, or 60 years of age at 13.6, 6.0, and 2.7, respectively.
A new finding not reported previously was that back pain risk was highest between 7:00 AMA and noon.
“Understanding which modifiable risk factors lead to low back pain is an important step toward controlling a condition that affects so many worldwide,” said Dr. Ferreira. “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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