PainRelief.com Interview with:
Jooa Norha, MSc (Health Sciences), PT
Doctoral researcher
Turku PET Centre
University of Turku, Finland
PainRelief.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: The previous evidence linking sedentary behavior (or sitting to simplify) and back pain is surprisingly scarce. Therefore, we wanted to investigate whether reducing sitting could help with back pain among adults who sit for major parts of the day. And indeed, we did find that reducing sitting for about 40 min/day for six months kept back pain from worsening.
PainRelief.com: What should readers take away from your report?
Response: If you have issues with back pain and you spend a lot of time sitting, you should try to find ways to replace sitting with something more active. Examples of these include standing desks, taking walking breaks or always standing up when talking on the phone, and cycling or walking instead of driving a car. Better yet, we know from previous studies that doing physical exercise, such as brisk walking, jogging or going to the gym, is beneficial for back health.
PainRelief.com: What recommendations do you have for future research as a result of this study?
Response: Future research should investigate the effects of sitting reduction on back pain among adults who have significant back pain to begin with. The participants in our study were not chosen based on back pain status, and most of them had only mild pain at baseline. It is possible that simply reducing sitting without adding any actual physical exercise training is not enough when the pain is severe. However, this is only a hypothesis and should be investigated in more detail in the future.
PainRelief.com: Is there anything else you would like to add? Any disclosures?
Response: Back pain is a highly individual and varying condition. Therefore everyone should be mindful of their physical activity and sitting behavior and try to find ways for limiting excessive sitting and increasing physical activities. This already can have marked impact on back pain, disability and even future workability.
I do not have any conflicts of interest to disclose.
Citation:
Norha J, Sjöros T, Garthwaite T, et al
Effects of reducing sedentary behaviour on back pain, paraspinal muscle insulin sensitivity and muscle fat fraction and their associations: a secondary analysis of a 6-month randomised controlled trial
BMJ Open 2024;14:e084305. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2024-084305
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Last Updated on October 8, 2024 by PainRelief.com