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Home » Consumer Information » Back Injuries

Back Injury Risk Factors

Anybody can encounter back pain, but there are certain physical and environmental factors that increase a person's risk of experiencing it:

  • Age – The initial onslaught of lower back pain usually happens between the age of 30 and 40. It becomes increasingly common as you get older.
  • Physical fitness – People who are not in the best of shape are more likely to be inhibited by back pain; an anemic back and abs may not give the spine the support it needs. People who participate in strenuous exercise on weekends after a workweek of inactivity are more prone to painful back injuries than those who take part in reasonable physical activity on a daily basis. Studies have proven that light aerobic exercise is beneficial for the individual discs that serve as cushions to the vertebrae.
  • Diet – A diet loaded with fatty and high-caloric food can lead to obesity in combination with a sedentary lifestyle. Being overweight puts additional stress on the back.
  • Heredity – Genetics can be a key contributor to back pain (e.g., disc disease).
  • Race – Some races are more apt to suffer from back problems than others; compared to white women, black women are two or three times as likely to contract spondylolisthesis. Spondylolisthesis is a condition where a vertebra located in the lower back slips out of sync with the rest of the spine.
  • Existence of other diseases – Numerous diseases can directly influence back pain such as arthritis (e.g., osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis) and cancer that develops somewhere else and migrates to the spine.
  • Jobsite – Working somewhere that expects you to lift, push, or pull heavy objects, specifically when it means flexing the spine in an unusual manner, can prompt spinal injury and pain. On the contrary, a stationary job in which you are confined to a desk most of the day can also generate pain. This particularly holds true if you slouch or sit in an uncomfortable seat.
  • Smoking cigarettes – Smoking may not be a direct cause of back pain, but it does improve your chances of having to endure lower back pain or lower back pain with sciatica. Sciatica causes the pain to shoot from the back to the hip, and possibly as far as the leg, as a result of pressure on a nerve. For instance, smoking can cause pain by preventing your body's natural process of delivering nutrients to the discs located in the lower back. Chronic coughing due to profuse smoking can aggravate the back as well. Furthermore, a smoker may simply be out of shape or less healthy in comparison to a nonsmoker, which increases their odds of back pain development. Smoking can also delay healing, causing the pain affiliated with a back injury, surgery, or broken bones to linger.