{"id":330,"date":"2015-05-10T13:00:24","date_gmt":"2015-05-10T13:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mtmic.com\/blog\/?p=330"},"modified":"2015-05-10T13:00:24","modified_gmt":"2015-05-10T13:00:24","slug":"low-back-pain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mtmic.com\/blog\/2015\/05\/low-back-pain\/","title":{"rendered":"Low Back Pain"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Donna Motley, Vice President of Claims<\/em><\/p>\n

I recently attended a conference where one of the speakers was John Flood, D.O. from Michigan Orthopedic Center in Lansing, Michigan. Dr. Flood is a physician we have utilized for Independent Medical Evaluations in the past. Dr. Flood presented some interesting facts concerning low back pain.<\/p>\n

One fact is that 80% of the population will experience low back pain during their lifetime. Of that 80%, 15% will experience the pain for 2 weeks or more. Interestingly enough, experiencing low back pain \u201cdecreases\u201d after age 65. The annual incidence of back pain has been unchanged over the past 30 years.<\/p>\n

The good news is that 85% of this population will improve at 6 weeks; 90% improve at 12 weeks; 10% will have ongoing pain. However, the recurrence rate at one year is 25-80%. Permanent work disability affects about 5% of those treating for low back pain.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The obvious risk factors for developing low back pain are: frequent combined bending and twisting; frequent lifting greater than 50#; and whole body vibration, i.e. driving a truck, forklift, bus, etc. However, additional risk factors are: stress, anxiety, depression, obesity, smoking and job dissatisfaction. When you combine both sets of factors, it is easy to see why 80% of the population is affected. It is society\u2019s perception of low back pain that has changed. In a non-industrialized society, low back pain is accepted as \u201cpart of life\u201d. In an industrialized society, low back pain is seen as a \u201cdisability\u201d.<\/p>\n

The unfortunate part is that when low back pain is related to work, if an employee does not return to work within 3 months, their prognosis is poor. Only 20% of work related low back injuries return if off more than one year. And only 2% return to work if off two years or more. Remember \u2013 the recurrence rate is 25-80%!<\/p>\n

A common treatment for low back pain is physical therapy along with re-education. Proper lifting techniques, muscle strengthening, ergonomics. Physical therapy should not be passive, it should be exercise \u2013 active, manual therapy. (The 2012 Journal of Orthopedic & Sports Physical Therapy recommends 6 weeks of therapy.) A general misconception is that you should \u201cavoid\u201d any activity which causes pain. Gone are the days when, following a back injury, you were told to \u201cgo home, lay flat and stay in bed\u201d.<\/p>\n

Workers\u2019 Compensation patients are found to have an elevated sensitivity to symptoms, higher behavior restricting fears, higher pain and impairment ratings, and a greater sense of entitlement. Workers\u2019 Compensation patients are also found to be more fearful about returning to work, they worry more, have more physical complaints and a higher rate of depression.<\/p>\n

Surgery is not the answer because following surgery, Workers\u2019 Compensation patients were at 2 times greater risk of a poor outcome.<\/p>\n

The best solution is to do everything you can to keep a low back injury from occurring in the first place! Have an ergonomic study performed, consider utilizing a job coach, work with your MTM Loss Control Consultant to make your facility safe and keep your employees healthy!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Donna Motley, Vice President of Claims I recently attended a conference where one of the speakers was John Flood, D.O. from Michigan Orthopedic Center in Lansing, Michigan. Dr. Flood is a physician we have utilized for Independent Medical Evaluations in the past. Dr. Flood presented some interesting facts concerning low back pain. One fact…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,8,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-330","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-loss-control","category-prevention","category-safety"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mtmic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mtmic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mtmic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mtmic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mtmic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=330"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.mtmic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mtmic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=330"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mtmic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=330"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mtmic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=330"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}