Are forward bending of the trunk and low back pain associated among Danish blue-collar workers? A cross-sectional field study based on objective measures
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In this study of 198 workers, not only was there no link between the amount of stooping (forward bending) and higher pain intensity, they actually found the opposite: in this group, more time spent flexing their spines beyond 30˚ was linked to lower back pain intensity.
original abstract†Abstracts here may not perfectly match originals, for a variety of technical and practical reasons. Some abstacts are truncated for my purposes here, if they are particularly long-winded and unhelpful. I occasionally add clarifying notes. And I make some minor corrections.
The aim of this cross-sectional study was to investigate the association between the duration of objectively measured forward bending of the trunk and low back pain (LBP) intensity among 198 Danish blue-collar workers (male = 115; female = 83). The duration of forward bending of ≥ 30°, ≥ 60° and ≥ 90° was divided into high (the highest tertile) and low-moderate (the remaining tertiles) categories. High >5) and low ( ≤ 5) pain intensities were categorised from a self-reported 0-9 scale. Results of multi-adjusted logistic regressions indicated no significant positive associations between forward bending and LBP intensity. On the contrary, higher duration of forward bending of ≥ 30° was associated with lower LBP intensity during all day (OR = 0.40; 95% CI, 0.15-1.02; p = 0.05) and work (OR = 0.44; 95% CI, 0.17-1.15; p = 0.09). This indication of a negative association may be explained by fear-avoidance behaviour of the blue-collar worker, job crafting or healthy worker effect.
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This page is part of the PainScience BIBLIOGRAPHY, which contains plain language summaries of thousands of scientific papers & others sources. It’s like a highly specialized blog. A few highlights:
- A Bayesian model-averaged meta-analysis of the power pose effect with informed and default priors: the case of felt power. Gronau 2017 Comprehensive Results in Social Psychology.
- The neck and headaches. Bogduk 2014 Neurol Clin.
- Agreement of self-reported items and clinically assessed nerve root involvement (or sciatica) in a primary care setting. Konstantinou 2012 Eur Spine J.
- Effect of NSAIDs on Recovery From Acute Skeletal Muscle Injury: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis. Morelli 2017 Am J Sports Med.
- Association of Spinal Manipulative Therapy With Clinical Benefit and Harm for Acute Low Back Pain: Systematic Review and Meta-analysis. Paige 2017 JAMA.