The Different Activities of Heavy Work that Can Cause or Prevent Low Back Pain

Summary

This paper indicates which types of heavy work provoke back pain due to the facet joint syndrome and which work activities or exercise can prevent back pain which may be caused by a back strain accident.

Thirteen methods of observing the activities of the back involved in work were used with techniques ranging from the trained observer method of choreology to the use of unobtrusive portable automatic monitoring instruments such as actimeters oxylog and the medilog systems.

From the duty rotas for a year it was possible to estimate each week’s work in terms of 123 activity variables and link this to the sickness absence records for 1472 men.

Lumbar rotation appeared to provoke the facet joint syndrome. Work with back muscle activity appeared to protect the back against strain injury.

Key words::

• Low back pain
• rotation activities
• facet joint syndrome
• causation
• back muscle activity
• back strain syndrome
• prevention