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Many ignore prevention until back injury occurs, study finds
July 30, 1997
Web posted at: 10:30 p.m. EDT (0230 GMT)From Correspondent Rhonda Rowland
(CNN) -- Lower back pain afflicts millions of people. And a new study casts doubt on a widely used method for preventing this common -- and expensive -- ailment.
"We found that it didn't make a difference," Lawren Daltroy of Brigham and Women's Hospital said. He's referring to a regimen of courses that are supposed to teach people ways to avoid back strain.
"We trained 2,500 workers; had another 2,500 or so controls. We followed them up for 5 1/2 years and found no difference in injury rates, in cost per injury or time off per injury in the two groups," according to Daltroy.
A lot of money is at stake. Lower back ailments cost U.S. companies $49 billion in 1992. The injuries accounted for 15 percent to 20 percent of workers' compensation injuries and about 35 percent of workers' compensation costs.
Physical therapists had long assumed their instructions were preventing injuries. "That's why I think this study is somewhat surprising," said David Pittman of NovaCare Inc., a nationwide provider of physical rehabilitation services.
Pittman suggests that healthy people may not be motivated to learn. "It's their back," he said. "Maybe this study does point out the fact that we have to find a better way of imparting this to individuals so that they will personally take accountability for it."
Experts aren't saying that teaching people how to care for their backs is fruitless. But such instruction seems most effective for patients who are feeling the first signs of a back injury.
"We have very good scientific data that shows that proper lifting and handling and posture can reduce stresses and strains on the lower back, which theoretically ought to prevent injury," Latroy said.
Related story:
- Back pain study finds doctors, chiropractors equally effective - October 6, 1995
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