The Truth about Lower Back Pain

Lower back pain (LBP) is the most common cause of disability worldwide and can lead to treatment options that are usually expensive, ineffective and potentially harmful (Hartvigsen et al., 2018). There is a lot of misinformation regarding LBP which has resulted in people with LBP becoming fear avoidant in their daily activities including posture, work, exercise and social activities (Bunzli et al., 2017). These non-evidence-based beliefs can contribute to people with LBP adopting a negative mindset and hypervigilance which can take a toll on one’s mental health (Bunzli et al., 2017). 

The following infographic by O'Sullivan et al. (2020) includes 10 facts about LBP to help counteract the amount of misinformation, fear and anxiety surrounding LBP.    

LBP is the most common presenting condition at Exercise Thought Physio. As physiotherapists, we strive to provide our clients with evidence-based education and care to minimise the effect LBP has on their quality of life.

By Jarrad Jansz, Physiotherapy Student at Exercise Thought

References:

Bunzli, S., Smith, A., Schütze, R., Lin, I., & O'Sullivan, P. (2017). Making sense of low back pain and pain-related fear. journal of orthopaedic & sports physical therapy, 47(9), 628-636.

Hartvigsen, J., Hancock, M. J., Kongsted, A., Louw, Q., Ferreira, M. L., Genevay, S., ... & Woolf, A. (2018). What low back pain is and why we need to pay attention. The Lancet, 391(10137), 2356-2367.

O'Sullivan, P. B., Caneiro, J. P., O'Sullivan, K., Lin, I., Bunzli, S., Wernli, K., & O'Keeffe, M. (2020). Back to basics: 10 facts every person should know about back pain.