From Reporter Louise Schiavone

(CNN) -- Who hasn't picked up a suitcase the wrong way, lifted a child out of a car seat or otherwise moved some unwieldy object and paid for it in back pain.

Many workers who handle heavy objects are instructed to lift by their legs, not their backs and try to reinforce their backs with lumbar supports -- lightweight elastic belts around the lower back.

But there's new evidence that lumbar supports and educating people about how to lift heavy objects have little impact on the overall incidence of low back pain and the sick leave that goes with it.

The findings are reported in the journal of The American Medical Association. Researchers looked at roughly 300 airline cargo workers. They found that less than half the workers consistently wore the lumbar back supports, which they say is not unusual.

Lumbar supports reinforce the back

Most people, if not nearly all, experience low back pain at some point in our lives.

Researchers cite recent estimates that the United States pays 28 billion dollars over the course of a year in direct and indirect costs relating to back pain.

Doctors and therapists agree: not only the costs but the suffering demand better ways be found to prevent and treat the problem.

Experts believe this study doesn't mean that anyone should stop wearing protective lower back supports or that all the back-protection education programs are flops.

What may be the real message, say doctors, is that more needs to be done to protect our fragile and often abused backs.