What is Back Pain?

Acute or short-term low back pain generally lasts from a few days to a few weeks. Most acute back pain is the result of trauma to the lower back or a disorder such as arthritis. Pain from trauma may be caused by a sports injury, work around the house or in the garden, or a sudden jolt such as a car accident or other stress on spinal bones and tissues. Symptoms may range from muscle ache to shooting or stabbing pain, limited flexibility and range of motion, or an inability to stand straight. Chronic back pain is pain that persists for more than 3 months. It is often progressive and the cause can be difficult to determine.

Currently, researchers are examining the use of different drugs to effectively treat back pain, in particular, chronic pain that has lasted at least 6 months. Other studies are comparing different health care approaches to the management of acute low back pain (standard care versus chiropractic, acupuncture, or massage therapy). These studies are measuring symptom relief, restoration of function, and patient satisfaction.

Construction Workers Injuries Result in Back Pain

fact of life based on how you make your living. Some people are more prone to certain conditions. If you work at a computer all day every day you have the possibility of carpal tunnel syndrome. If you are a beat cop its your feet that will hurt by the end of the day. If its construction work that you do then you have a high probability of a variety of back issues that you may have to deal with. Of all the possible injuries that a construction worker may have doing something that will cause back pain is the most likely.
Being a construction worker is a risky profession. There are many opportunities for injury in this field. The most likely reason a construction worker misses work is that they have overdone it and strained the muscles in the backs, legs or arms. Twenty percent of missed time is caused by overwork. This includes putting in overtime to meet a deadline on a project or working extra days by working on another site on their off time. The companies that the workers are employed by encourage this overwork and the money they make seems to be good compensation for these extra hours. Sprains and strains are the reasons thirty seven percent of workers miss time. Other reasons for missing work include being hit by something, cuts and fall. But, no matter what the source of the problem twenty one percent of the time it is related to back injuries and the pain that accompanies them.
Unfortunately research studies are showing that back injuries among construction workers are on the rise. Musculoskeletal disorders are accounting for a large percentage of the worker's problems. Of the higher proportion of these musculoskeletal injuries that are happening in the workplace ten percent of them are related to the construction field. These injuries have required time off work that averaged ten days. But depending on how serious the back injury, and so how severe the back pain, workers have taken off between one and thirty days.
Back injuries are often the most serious of the construction site injuries, besides the fatal injuries that occur often in this occupation. Nearly thirty percent of all construction workers complain of back pain that requires over thirty days off. The average number of days missed by a construction worker is higher than in other fields of employment.
One of the problems with construction workers is that they cannot afford to take a lot of time off despite the back pain they are dealing with. There are too many workers out there who are more than happy to take their jobs on a construction site while they are recovering from the back pain of their most recent injury.
Not surprisingly the three largest states of California, Florida and Texas are accountable for twenty five percent of the injuries of construction workers.

Written by: Scott Parat