Relationship between pedometer-determined physical activity and low back pain in middle aged Finnish population (30-45) :

Abstract

Undoubtedly, modern sedentary lifestyle is a severe threat factor for various health-related concerns. Engagement in regular physical activity is requisite to achieve physiological and psychological health benefits and to alleviate the risk for many undesirable health outcomes including musculoskeletal, cardiovascular disease, obesity, hypertension, and diabetes. Staying physically active is recommended in the deterrence and management of low back pain. Lately, an alternative guideline about physical activity has been introduced, which is more realistic than the 30 minutes/day recommendation. This guideline says that attaining 10,000 steps/day improves health. Therefore, pedometers have become popular tool to measure ambulatory activities objectively throughout the day in the form of steps count. Moreover, they provide a valid and accurate measure of activities in free-living condition. Furthermore, pedometers are simple to utilize, relatively inexpensive and good tools to use in large population based studies. The aim of the current study is to find the relation between pedometer-determined physical activity in the form of daily steps count and low back pain in middle aged Finnish population (30-45 year old participants).

The data has drawn from the latest follow up in 2007 of an extensive interdisciplinary longitudinal research project “The Young Finns Study”. All the same subjects who participated first time in this study in 1980 and had a permanent address in Finland (n=3596) were invited to participate in the latest follow up in 2007. Among those, 2204 (65%) individuals filled out the questionnaire. From 2204 participants, 1874 completed the pedometer study. Complete date was received from 1866 (Female=1067, Men=799) participants. Women were more physically active than men. Chi square test revealed that there were no differences in back pain between different physical activity groups either in females or in males. In female, association between back pain and BMI was weak whereas in men, some association was seen between back pain and occupation. Regression analyses showed that physical activity did not increase the risk of having back pain, however, adding factor such as body mass index slightly increased the risk in women. On the other hand, active men were having risk for low back pain twice when it was compared with low active men. Adding factor like body mass index, education, and occupation did not show any risk for low back pain in men.

In conclusion, this study did not support the idea of U-shaped relation (i.e. both inactivity and excessive activities) between different levels of physical activity and low back pain in males and females. Active males were at higher risk of having back pain than non-active ones.