For many people, low back pain is chronic, meaning it is constant for at least three months.
There are several risk factors for chronic low back pain, such as not getting enough physical activity.
A new study found that increasing the length of time and intensity of one’s walks may help lower the risk of experiencing chronic low back pain.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), about 619 million people around the world were living with low back pain in 2020. This number is expected to hit 843 million by 2050.
For many people, their low back pain is chronic, meaning it is constant for at least three months. And the pain is moderate to intense, affecting their daily lives.
There are a number of risk factors for chronic low back pain. Some are not modifiable, such as age, genetics, and underlying medical conditions such as arthritis, spinal infections, spinal stenosis, osteoporosis, and fibromyalgia.
However, several risk factors are modifiable, including obesity, improving lifting techniques, smoking, stress, and a sedentary lifestyle.
“Low back pain is the leading cause of disability worldwide and accounts for the highest healthcare spending in the U.S.,” Rayane Haddadj, MS, a PhD candidate in the Department of Public Health and Nursing at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Norway, told Medical News Today. “Identifying modifiable risk factors that can be targeted and easily implemented through public health policy and interventions is therefore of great importance.”
Haddadj is the first author of a new study recently published in the journal JAMA Network Open that says increasing the length of time you walk, and its intensity, may help lower your risk for chronic low back pain.
Walking 100+ minutes per day lowers low back pain risk
For this study, researchers analyzed medical data from more than 11,000 adult participants with an average age of about 55 from the Trøndelag Health (HUNT) Study in Norway, which ran from 2017 to 2019 with a follow-up in 2021 to 2023.
At the start of the HUNT study, study participants did not have chronic low back pain. Researchers focused on the daily minutes each participant walked and their walking intensity, or how quickly they walked, which is calculated by using the metabolic equivalent of task (MET) per minute.
At the study’s conclusion, Haddadj and his team found that participants walking for more than 100 minutes per day were associated with a 23% lower risk of chronic low back pain, compared to those who walked less than 78 minutes per day.
“Our study shows that higher daily walking volume lowers the risk of developing chronic low back pain. The relationship was dose-dependent — meaning the more people walked, the lower their risk — up to about 100 minutes per day, after which the benefit leveled off. Even small increases in daily walking were associated with a decreased risk of chronic low back pain.”
— Rayane Haddadj, MS
Walking intensity also linked to lower pain risk
Additionally, researchers discovered that walking intensity was also associated with the risk of chronic low back pain, but to a lesser degree than walking volume.
“Our results suggest that a higher average walking intensity is associated with lower risk of chronic low back pain,” Haddadj said. “However, the association was less pronounced than for walking volume. Further research, including a more robust assessment of walking intensity, could enhance our understanding of its association with the risk of chronic low back pain.”
“Our results reinforce a growing body of evidence showing that physical activity is essential for long-term health. Even small increases in daily activity can make a difference. Or as the World Health Organization puts it ‘every move counts towards a better health’.”
— Rayane Haddadj, MS
“Walking is a simple, low cost, and accessible activity that can be promoted widely to reduce the burden of low back pain,” Haddadj added. “Walking more could therefore be a simple yet powerful way to reduce risk of chronic low back pain and other diseases. Future studies investigating parameters such as timing and context of walking could enhance our understanding of the association between walking and risk of chronic low back pain.”
Walking more may not always prevent back pain
MNT spoke with Neel Anand, MD, MCh Orth, a board certified orthopedic spine surgeon and director of the Cedars-Sinai Spine Center in Los Angeles, about this study.
Anand commented that while he agrees with the study’s findings that activity is better than no activity, he does not agree with the idea that if you walk, you will lower your risk for chronic back pain.
“Walking does not prevent back pain. Walking helps you get better because activity will help back pain always — it actually does. If you have chronic back pain, activity and walking actually makes it feel better than remaining stationary.”
— Neel Anand, MD, MCh Orth
“But the idea that you walk, you’re not going to get back pain, makes no sense at all — that idea is not logical,” Anand continued. “Back pain is a degenerative disorder. Yes, a couch potato has more chances of getting back pain than a person who’s more active — that is correct. But to take that a step further and say, just because you walk, you’re not going to get back pain is too far a reach. In my opinion, that’s too far a conclusion to make.”
View the original article on Medical News Today
