Back Pain Alert – the Increasing Problem of Poor Workplace Posture

People who regularly 'surf the net' probably know all about the minor aches and pains that can arise when using computers for long hours. These back, shoulder and neck pains often seem insignificant to the user. Others subconsciously link the cause to other areas of their life such as an overindulgent exercise session, their workload or even their age, using a 'quick fix' pain relief as a solution! Age does not stimulate back pain, repetitively positioning your body in an incorrect position will. Poor posture is the cause, shoulder, neck and lower and upper back pain are the symptons. I've noticed that most people set about easing the sympton whilst ignoring the deep rooted cause.

Most of us know that those minor chronic aches and pains can, if ignored, sometimes develop into much more serious issues that can cause a lot of pain and potentially threaten our ability to work. OK, so this isn’t a dramatic risk like working on a fishing boat, down a coal-mine or in the army, but it can still be career-threatening and life-changing.

These problems are only likely to get more common. Computer use is has grown dramatically over the past decade and continues to grow, both in and out of the workplace.

I like to point out the following - when I was growing up, extensive computer use (including gaming) was only for computer geeks, like myself. But with the advent of social networking sites like Facebook, MySpace, Bebo and CompetitiveUrge, even cool kids are using computers for very long periods at a time, and from much earlier ages than ever before. In fact, I visited a number nurseries the other day on a mission to find the most suitable for my baby son. I was amazed to find the amount of computers present, and the age of the children using them. I’m not talking about kids preparing for school life, boys and girls as young as 3 navigating PC’s with considerable aplomb!

As impressive as such feats appear,  this also has worrying implications - studies of schoolchildren in Scotland and Scandinavian countries in recent years have shown that they start suffering musculoskeletal pain from an early age. Much of this is correctly concluded as down to carrying heavy schoolbags and poor school furniture, but they’ve also shown clear correlation between the amount of time spent using computers and experiencing pain symptoms.

The 2007 ViewSonic survey of 1500 computer workers reported 71% of respondents suffered back pain at their computer. But when they looked at the figures for 16-24 year olds, that jumped to 80%.

Either these young peoples’ problems will settle down in time - or the fact they’ve been using computers from a young age, together with other social trends such as obesity, mean that posture-related problems are going to significantly increase over time.

I know which my money’s on…