The past week has been Back Pain Awareness Week 2019 and the focus this year has been on education. BackCare has run a campaign targeted at children and young people with an aim to educate them on how to look after their spines whilst they are young which will hopefully prevent them from developing back and neck pain in later life.
Back pain is one of the main causes of needing time off work and costs the UK economy around £15 billion every year as over four million working days are lost as a result of the condition. We know that about 80% of the UK population will suffer from back pain at some point in their lives but that does not mean they will develop chronic back pain.
Dr Brian Hammond, the Chair of BackCare said: “Early teaching of children and young people of the importance of taking care of their backs is bound to have a positive effect on the health of their backs as adults… there are simple things children and young people can do, such as sitting properly and not for too long, exercising regularly, stretching and lifting correctly. They also need to know how to carry their school books and equipment in a way that does not harm their back or neck.”
A survey conducted by BackCare in 2015 questioned 900 UK secondary school pupils (aged 11-16 years).
The results of the survey showed:
1) One in four children of the children surveyed had regular daily back pain
Two thirds of the pupils had experienced back pain at some point and a quarter of those surveyed suffered from back pain regularly or every day – this was higher amongst girls (27%) than boys (19%). Neck and shoulder pain were also very common.
2) In the 2015 BackCare survey, back pain was 10x more common amongst pupils with heavy or tiring school bags
3) The more sitting children do the more likely they will have back pain
Pupils surveyed were asked to estimate the number of hours they spent sitting in the classroom per day, at meal times, whilst travelling, doing homework and during their free time. The survey results showed that these children sit for an average of nine hours per day! Back pain was almost doubled amongst pupils with higher than average sitting times.
