At some point in your life, you will most likely experience back pain. There are many different causes for back pain range, including traumatic accidents; sports-related injuries; degenerative changes; sub-optimal biomechanical patterns and so forth – the list goes on and on. Low-back pain (LBP) in particular has become a worldwide epidemic – in 2020, 619 million people reported LBP and this number is only projected to continue increasing to 843 million by 2050 (Rheumatology, 2023).
The prevalence of LBP is highest in working-age individuals and the effects of it can be seen at multiple levels, having a flow-on effect on country’s healthcare systems, workforces, local communities and of course on the individual themselves.
Around 34% of office workers experience LBP (Gobbo et.al., 2019). These rates are closely linked with sedentarism, both within the workplace and during leisure time (Bontrup et.al., 2019) whereby workers are staying in the same position for a prolonged duration while working and/or do not have an active lifestyle outside of work. The effects of LBP are not just physical. Apart from pain, LBP – particularly chronic LBP – can contribute to a variety of negative outcomes, including poor job satisfaction; early retirement; absence from work; depression and disability.