Activity reduces sick leave
Inactivity and repose can in some instances actually make back problems worse and can end up costing society more.
According to researcher Eli Molde Hagen, patients with back pain should strive to move about normally, as much as possible. Hagen recently defended her doctoral dissertation on the treatment of back pain. Hagen is a Section Chief Physician at the Back Outpatient Department at Ottestad Hospital. She has worked collaboratively with researchers at the Department of Biological and Medical Psychology at UiB since 1994.
Her thesis work has led to the publication of four scientific articles. One of these highlighted the fact that 12% more patients who had received specialised help at the Back Outpatient Department returned to work more quickly than those who only received normal help from their primary health provider. Hagen calculated that there would have been a 643 million kroner reduction in health benefits paid out if all patients with the same kind of back problem had been treated at the Back Outpatient Department.
Pain is not necessarily harmful
“If patients with back pain keep overly still their muscles can become even more easily strained with activity, which can lead to greater back pain problems. Movement can be helpful in loosening up the muscles.”
Hagen underlines that although normal physical activity can be painful for a period of time, it is important to stress that this is not necessarily harmful.
“The background thinking behind the treatments applied at Back Outpatient Department includes listening to the patients’ concerns and encouraging them to be as active as possible. This kind of support could be carried out by primary health providers just as well,” explains Hagen.
She stresses that it is important to listen to the patients throughout the process.
“Patients should be kept well-informed during their treatment. Uncertainty about the causes of back pain can lead to increased complaints.”
Being frightened into passivity
Over the past 20 years, sick leaves because of back problems have increased. Pain related to back problems has become one of Norway’s single most expensive source of individual suffering with an overall price tag of several billion Norwegian kroner a year. Hagen says that we do not know why this situation has developed.
“It is, in many ways, a mystery. More people do not have back problems, but there has been an increase in the number of sick leaves being attributed to back pain. It may be that this is related to the myth that people have about back pain, whereby people believe that they should be inactive when they have back pain. This myth effectively frightens them into passivity,” she explains.