Back pain—exercise works, devices don't

Employees are more likely to give back pain as the reason for filing a worker’s comp than any other cause, and only the common cold results in more days off work.

Training programs have mushroomed to teach proper lifting techniques. Devices such as hoists have been introduced in hospitals and other businesses around the country.

Now there is a report based on data from 18,000 employees in eleven studies with the conclusion that they don’t work. Neither training nor assistive devices were shown in the review of the studies to prevent back pain or reduce disability claims or sick leave.

Some of the studies examined the impact of training on back pain. Others looked at the association between using hoists or other lifting devices and back pain. Still others compared employees with both types of programs in place or no preventive programs at all. There was no significant difference in the number of back pain claims for any of the employee groups.

Christopher Maher, associate professor of physiotherapy at the University of Sydney in Australia did not participate in the study but had this to say to Science Daily:
“...[G]overnment bodies and employers concentrate on things that do not work, [such as] back belts, education, lifting devices, workplace redesign and no-lift policies, and ignore the only known effective intervention—exercise.”

The study referred to above was conducted by the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health in Helsinki, Finland, and was reported in the latest issue of The Cochrane Library, a publication of an international organization that draws evidence-based conclusions from medical research.