Prevention
Recurring back pain resulting from improper body mechanics or other nontraumatic causes is often preventable. A combination of exercises that don't jolt or strain the back, maintaining correct posture, and lifting objects properly can help prevent injuries.
Many injuries are caused or aggravated by stressors such as:
Ergonomics In The Home And Workplace
Applying ergonomic principles designing furniture and tools to protect the body from injury can greatly reduce the risk of back injury and help maintain a healthy back.
To reduce the risks of musculoskeletal injury and pain, more companies are promoting better ergonomically designed:
Back Belts
The use of wide elastic belts that can be tightened to pull in lumbar and abdominal muscles to prevent low back pain is controversial. A study of the use of back support belts worn by persons who lift or move merchandise found no evidence that the belts reduce back injury or back pain.
Although there have been anecdotal case reports of injury reduction among workers using back belts, many companies that have back belt programs also have training and ergonomic awareness programs. Injury reduction may be related to a combination of these or other factors.
Source: NIH Publication No. 03-5161
