Study Finds Cause of Recurring Back Injury

The first study of its kind has found that recurring back injury is largely due to the use of many inappropriate muscles in place of the muscles that cause pain. The findings were made by researchers at Ohio State University (Columbus, USA) and were published in the December 1, 2001, issue of Spine.

The researchers compared the lifting activity of 22 uninjured adults to that of 22 people suffering from lower back pain (LBP), using a mathematical technique to obtain information from the partial exertions an injured person could comfortably provide. The technique takes data from an injured person's electromyogram (EMG), which measures a muscle's electrical activity, and calibrates it so it can be compared with an uninjured person's EMG.

This enabled the researchers to calculate what the forces on the spine would be if injured people could exert the full power of their muscles. The results showed that people with back injuries unknowingly inflict twice as much twisting force on their spine and 1.5 times as much compressive force as uninjured people when lifting the same object. Over time, say the researchers, these greater loads could lead to more serious injuries, such as disc degeneration. Also, lifting slowly, as injured people tend to do, intensifies the harm, and overweight people experience increased force on the spine.




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