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Stress Management
Corner
Back Pain
Back pain
be so omnipresent that we think it is as inevitable as death and taxes.
But does it need to be? Can it be controlled or managed better?
Certainly there
is no doubt that it is costly. Estimates are that it costs billions of
U.S. dollars each year in work days loss and related health care costs.
As 25% of the total compensation claims, it is the number one reason why
workers file compensation claims. Thirty-six billion dollars was paid out
for compensation claims in just one year in the 90's.
Most of these
cases are work-related. In 1998, of the 149 million workdays lost each
year, 101 million workdays of the injuries happened on the job. These numbers
are so huge, that even small reductions (on the order of one percent) can
save billions of dollars.
Obviously, there
are things employers can do to reduce these costs. And there are things
that individuals can do to prevent the pain for themselves. These solutions
include:
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Strengthening stomach
muscles so more of lifted weight loads are shifted away from back muscles.
Companies could help by offering noontime lectures on developing stomach
muscles. Individuals could make a decision to get themselves in shape to
prevent the debilitating pain when one's back goes out.
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Losing weight. Overweight
people are much more likely to injure their backs. There are other advantages
to losing weight, but certainly preventing back injuries is a significant
one. Organizations could help here by purchasing memberships in weight
loss programs for staff.
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Learning to lift heavy
objects properly. There are definitely better ways to lift objects than
others. Again, it would be useful if companies offered noontime lectures
on proper lifting techniques. Perhaps it would be a good idea to require
every person in the company to attend an annual one-hour lecture. It is
easy to forget the best techniques, and an annual refresher would probably
easily cut down the incidence of back-related problems by at least one
percentage point.
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Identifying which workplace
practices correlate with lower back pain incidence. One practice
that seems to predominate in organizations where back injuries occur is
lack of control. Johns Hopkins University researchers found a strong correlation
between the incidence of back problems and work control. Not surprisingly,
those workers who had the least decision making control had the most back
problems. If managers systematically reengineered the way they structure
work for their teams, a lot of back problems could be avoided.
There are
dozens of other strategies that would have an impact on reducing back injuries.
Choosing any single strategy and promoting it throughout the organization
would probably have an impact by itself. As awareness is brought to the
problem, people will be more careful and injuries will automatically down
to a limited degree. Think of what could happen if the company began to
actually implement strategies to reduce this significant cost.
Janelle M. Barlow,
Ph.D.
Author of The
Stress Manager
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