Low back pain is the world’s biggest work disability

It’s official: Low back pain is the world’s biggest work disability, ranking higher than any other condition including infections, depression and cardiac disease.

The research, conducted across 187 countries over a 20-year period, also found that low back pain accounted for a third of all work-related disability worldwide.

Lead author, Professor Tim Driscoll, Sydney School of Public Health, said that low back pain arising from ergonomic exposures at work is a major cause, including lifting, forceful movement, awkward positions and vibration.

The people most at risk were those who work in the agricultural sector, and those aged 35 – 65.

“Lower back pain arising from ergonomic exposures at work is a major cause of disability worldwide. There is a need for improved information on exposure risks, particularly in developing countries, to help better understand the burden. This should lead to better prevention of back pain and injury, as well as decreased lost work time due to back pain,” Professor Driscoll said.

Study co-author, rheumatologist and epidemiologist, Professor Rachelle Buchbinder of Monash University in Melbourne, has cited in ABC Science that low back pain is on the rise – a product of aging populations, increasing obesity and inactive lifestyle.

“Back pain was the number one cause of disability in most countries around the world, including Australia”, she says.

The research findings, which was funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, is based on data collected fro the Global Burden of Disease 2010 study, which assessed ill health and disabilities arising from all conditions across 187 countries in 1990, 2005, and 2010. In the study, Low back pain was compared to 290 other conditions, including mental health, infectious disease, and cardiac disease.

Low back pain topped the table in years of productivity lost to disability. In 12 of the 21 world regions, lower back pain was the greatest contributor to disability, with one in 10 people (9.4%) having lower back pain.

The research, published in the Annals of Rheumatic Diseases, also found that the highest risk group, Agricultural workers, are more than 3.7 times likely to suffer low back pain than office workers, while scientists are 1.2 times more likely.

Further reading:

The global burden of low back pain: Estimates from the Global Burden of Disease 2010 study