Back pain linked to workplace culture

Being unhappy or dissatisfied at work could be as big a contributor to back pain as hard physical work, Adelaide research has found.

Paul Rothmore, a Senior Lecturer in Public Health at the University of Adelaide, said there was increasing evidence that physical factors were not the only causes of musculoskeletal disorders.

He said research undertaken at the University of Adelaide indicated that psychosocial risk factors, such as monotonous work, high job demands, low social support, low job dissatisfaction and high perceived stress could be equally to blame for back disorders as physical risk factors.

Physical risk factors include manual material handling, frequent bending and twisting, lifting heavy physical loads, static work posture and exposure to whole body vibration.

Rothmore said there were people who suffered back injuries with no apparent physical cause and in many of these cases this was likely to be a result of a poor work environment.

However, this did not mean the injuries were any less real.

Rothmore is speaking on the topic ‘Pain in the neck: Minimising hazardous manual task harm’ at Safe Work Week in South Australia.