While many people think that back pain can be cured by immobility, on the contrary, it is necessary to continue to have regular physical activity to be cured, ensures the Health Insurance in a new awareness campaign on low back pain.
“Back pain? The right treatment is movement”. Contrary to popular belief, to overcome back pain, you have to move, explains Health Insurance in a new awareness campaign on this affliction which manifests itself most often in the form of low back pain. The latter, which affects the bottom of the spine and corresponds to low back pain unrelated to a fracture cause, represents the second reason for consultation with the general practitioner in France, leading to a work stoppage in one in five cases.
Indeed, “four out of five people will suffer from common low back pain during their lifetime, and more than half of the French population has had at least one episode of back pain in the last twelve months”, explains Health Insurance on its Ameli.fr website. “This symptom is a reason for frequent consultation, at the 2th rank of consultation reasons for acute low back pain (less than 4 weeks) and 8thth rank for chronic low back pain (more than 3 months) “, she explains.
However, despite the trivialization of this evil, many French people have a mistaken view of it. Indeed, according to a survey carried out by BVA in April 2018, 45% of respondents believe that the best remedy for low back pain is rest, which is completely false, insists the Health Insurance on its website. “To pass the pain and not let it settle, you have to keep moving,” she explains in a video clip already published in 2017 and which is back on television today.
Climb the stairs, swim on the back, stretch …
With the aim of developing a “new behavior in accordance with medical recommendations” concerning back pain, the Health Insurance has also developed an Activ’Dos mobile application “to support all those who want to preserve the health of their back”. “Composed of videos of exercises and postures, it can be offered to patients in support of active rehabilitation,” she explains, also referring to her Facebook page Maldedos.lebonmouvement, as well asa brochure to be distributed to patients in doctor’s offices.
In the latter, Health Insurance offers various relaxation, stretching and muscle strengthening exercises. The “only the movement maintains muscle tone, ligament strength and helps fight against low back pain and its chronicization”, she insists, also recommending to walk quickly, to climb the stairs, or to swim on the back. Other advice given: adapt your environment (the height of the work surface) and avoid performing imaging examinations before 4 to 6 weeks of back pain.
But if too many people still think that you have to stay still when you have back pain, they are however less than before, welcomes the Health Insurance according to which the awareness campaign launched in 2017 is at the origin of that evolution. In fact, in last year’s BVA survey, nearly 7 out of 10 people thought that “the best remedy for low back pain is rest”, while today 87% of French people and 95% of general practitioners surveyed recommend on the contrary “an adapted physical activity”.
A colossal direct and indirect cost for public spending
“These results are very positive because they demonstrate that patients are already adopting a new behavior by practicing physical activity in the event of low back pain. This development is perfectly in line with the key points and good practices that the multidisciplinary working group set up. by the Health Insurance emerged just a year ago. Taking the initiative to continue your daily life while maintaining your personal and professional activities is essential. It is the key to a faster recovery and this approach helps relapse prevention, ”explains Prof. Olivier Lyon-Caen, national medical consultant for Health Insurance.
If the latter takes the subject so much to heart, it is because low back pain represents a colossal direct and indirect cost for France. In detail, these expenses are estimated at 661 million euros, including 353 million for work stoppages for the sickness branch. For the work accidents / occupational diseases branch of the Health Insurance, low back pain costs one billion euros per year, 580 million euros from daily sick leave benefits.
See the video clip of the Health Insurance above:
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