Physical activities such as bending and pushing may temporarily flare up lower back pain but are unlikely to cause long-term damage, a new study has found.
The findings, published in The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) Network Open, suggests that people with lower back pain can generally engage in activities involving pushing, pulling, bending and twisting with the knowledge that they are not linked to worse long-term outcomes, researchers said.
The team from the Veterans Affairs Puget Sound Health Care System and University of Washington in the US, along with institutes in Australia, examined both short and long-term effects of 10 common movements, including lifting 4.5 kilogrammes, sitting, standing, walking and squatting.
Over 400 participants responded to surveys over a one-year follow-up period.
'Each additional hour in which an activity was performed at least once in that hour was associated with (a) greater risk of subsequent flares for lifting more than 10 pounds (or 4.5 kilogrammes), bending, pushing (or) pulling, twisting and squatting,' the authors wrote.
More time spent on activities such as lifting, pushing or pulling, bending, twisting and crawling was linked to a higher risk of temporarily flare-ups of lower back pain, while sitting was associated with a lower risk of back pain flare-ups.
However, average time spent on each of the physical activity analysed during the first eight weeks of the study was not associated with long-term functional limitations one year later, the study found.
The authors found 'short-term, transient risks of (low back pain) flares associated with some activities but no associations with functional limitations at one-year follow-up.'
The results indicate that although some activities may trigger a flaring up of lower back pain in the short term, they are not associated with long-term functional limitations, the team said.
The findings provide supporting evidence for the view that activities are potential triggers of low back pain but do not support the view that performing the activities results in long-term limitations, which the authors said was consistent with the public health message that physical movement generally benefits lower back pain.