Sitting is associated with immediate low back pain

Whether or not sitting results in either immediate increases in low back pain, or in triggering a subsequent episode of low back pain, has been difficult to establish where studies rely on participant self-report, or other potentially inaccurate measures of sitting duration and timing of low back pain onset. This new, award-winning systematic review addresses this uncertainty by including only experimental studies that objectively measured sitting duration and measures of pain level at baseline, during and/or immediately after sitting, in healthy participants (without a low back pain condition).

....and the conclusion - from 9/10 studies with low-moderate risk of bias, sitting for 1 hour (up to 6 hours) was associated with increased concurrent low back pain. The clinical relevance of this is unclear, but research methods that accurately measure sitting duration provide a way forward to investigate this further.

If you find yourself sitting for prolonged periods of time, chiropractic treatments can help greatly.


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