Education is best weapon against back pain

For years, fitness experts have been extolling the virtues of working on core strength to help prevent back injury, rather than more traditional exercises such as sit-ups.

However, a new study from the University of Floridahas found that education is the best weapon in preventing back pain, and that there is actually little difference in the benefits to be gained from exercise routines that focus on core strength and those which involve repetitive movements such as sit-ups.

Researchers in the US used a group of over 4,000 soldiers stationed in Texas as their guinea pigs, as part of an ongoing health education programme called POLM or Prevention of Low Back Pain in the Military. The subjects were  put into one of four groups for the three-month long study, including one control group.

Of the other three, one group was given only a core exercise routine, another a fitness regime including sit-ups and the third a combination of both types of training along with additional classroom sessions on how to improve back health and prevent injury.  During these lessons, the soldiers were taught everything from good posture to how to lift heavy items correctly, thereby avoiding back injuries, as well as tips on how best to recover if the back is already problematic.

Staff at the University of Florida and  Fort Sam Houston, where the soldiers involved were stationed, monitored the four groups’ health records for 24 months after the programme had finished, with special notice being taken of any incidences of back injury or back pain.

The findings showed that both the groups who had received only fitness training were no better off than the control group, and that it was only the fourth team, those who received educational training too, who showed any decrease in the number of soldiers reporting problems with back pain.

The decrease was only small, less then three per cent, but researchers are confident that with ongoing training and supervision, the results could easily become more impressive. However, back pain is such a significant problem amongst the US armed forces, that even such a small decrease in cases could have a major impact on the number of staff able to work thanks to better back health.

Steven George, one of the professors at the University of Florida’s College of Public Health and Health Professions’ department of physical therapy and head researcher on this project, admitted that the medical experts themselves had been surprised by their findings.

He added that they had assumed the best results would be seen in the group that was given core exercise routines, but that it seemed the only way to improve back health was to ensure that soldiers and the public are well educated about how to protect themselves from back injury.