Employers' proactive workplace measures reduce back injuries

|tab|

Shelley Hampton is a corporate fitness trainer and owner of Shape Shifters Pilates Studio. |ret||ret||tab|

Businesses and their employees continually seek more effective and less costly treatment options for back pain and injury. Amazingly, these are already available but widely ignored. |ret||ret||tab|

Jeff Ward with the San Diego Back Institute said that over 90 percent of disc problems improve with therapies such as acupuncture, spinal adjustments, yoga, Pilates, weight lifting, physical therapy and sound nutrition.|ret||ret||tab|

Preventing injury is obviously the first step toward reducing costs. Employers know it pays to put safeguards in the workplace, monitor workload, reduce lifting as much as possible and create properly aligned workstations that match each worker. |ret||ret||tab|

Furthermore, the wise employer posts safety signs, holds safety meetings and creates an effective system for recording back pain and its probable cause.|ret||ret||tab|

In the workplace, one of the few reliable predictors of back disability and pain is a poor attitude about one's job. Employers can monitor this in routine performance reviews.|ret||ret||tab|

Some back-pain patients use catastrophizing as a way of coping with pain ("This will only get worse" or "I'll never work again."). |ret||ret||tab|

The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory test, which is familiar to the mental-health community, reveals high levels of emotional distress and the tendency to catastrophize as powerful predictors of chronic disability.|ret||ret||tab|

Other predictors include recent hospitalization, viewing injury as compensable, smoking, poor stress management and having a low education level.|ret||ret||tab|

Finally, previous injury places one at risk for future problems, so being aware of employees' spinal health histories can help identify risk and fine-tune prevention efforts.|ret||ret||tab|

For example, whiplash causes problems in the neck and upper back region. In whiplash, the ligaments that hold the heart suspended in the center chest are connected to vertebrae in the upper back. Although injury to these ligaments does not cause pain, they can develop fibrosis that, in time, will affect the thoracic area of the spine. |ret||ret||tab|

Problems from the earlier injury only manifest later when exacerbated by lifting or other movements at work.|ret||ret||tab|

In addition to attending to attitude, the truly proactive employer will include an annual screening for posture, flexibility and low-back discomfort in order to prevent the development of lower-back syndrome.|ret||ret||tab|

This is valuable because poor posture, restricted range of motion and slight or occasional back pain if ignored can become a condition that requires extensive treatment. Such posture screenings take three minutes and can be performed at hiring. |ret||ret||tab|

They produce the greatest preventative results when repeated two or three times a year.|ret||ret||tab|

Certification programs for corporate trainers offered by the United States Aerobic and Conditioning Association include these assessments as well as tracking and follow-up plans. |ret||ret||tab|

A wellness or safety director can learn to do these assessments or the screening can be outsourced.|ret||ret||tab|

These assessments send a message of caring to the employee. Just as important, assessments can identify those who are predisposed to recurring back problems and encourage them to improve their physical condition.|ret||ret||tab|

This, in turn, proves to insurance carriers that the business is keeping a close eye on injury prevention within the organization. In fact, insurance carriers could actually reduce their losses by funding such health screening programs instead of sending the annual slide show on back safety.|ret||ret||tab|

Employers screen for risk of cancer, diabetes and high blood pressure in the workplace, why not screen for risk of back injury?|ret||ret||tab|

[[In-content Ad]]