Low Back Pain Recurrence in Occupational Environments

Study Design. Prospective assessment of return to work after low back pain. Objective. To determine which factors or combination of factors best predict recurrence of low back pain (de-fined 4 different ways) when returning to full-duty work. Summary of Background Data. Recurrent back pain is one of the more costly health problems facing industry today. Few systematic evaluations of the various factors suspected of exacerbating low back pain have been re-ported in the literature. Methods. A total of 206 workers who reported low back pain were evaluated as they returned to full-duty work. Five types of assessments were performed includ-ing: 1) a low back kinematic functional assessments, 2) evaluation of job physical demands, 3) psychosocial as