Back pain sufferers expected to increase in number

Low back pain, often simply called back pain, appears to afflict older people and women more than working adults or men respectively. — AFP

A physical trauma, a decline in mental health, a lack of physical activity, and more generally, a sedentary lifestyle, can all be causes of acute or chronic low back pain, which is also called lumbago, or simply, back pain.

A team of international researchers, including scientists from the University of Sydney in Australia, the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington School of Medicine in the United States, and the Global Alliance for Musculoskeletal Health, has analysed the number of low back pain cases worldwide, including, for the first time, global projections, drawing on no less than three decades of data.