How Back Injuries Can Severely Affect Both Employees and Employers
Lower back pain is a Musculoskeletal Disorder (MSD) that affects 570 million people across the globe, with about 65 million Americans reporting back pain. Back pain can occur due to injuries or be a symptom of other MSDs that are often borne of certain work practices or accidents in the workplace.
Back injuries are common even in workplaces that don’t necessarily require manual labor. Back pain is among the leading causes of disability across the world as well.
In this content piece, we will look over how back injuries can affect both the workers that are affected by them, as well as their employers.
How Back Injuries Affect Everyone
Back pain and back injuries do more than just cause an employee to call in sick for a few days. It is a health issue that affects more than half a billion people across the globe, and a back injury can leave a person disabled for the rest of their life. Chronic back pain is also a long-term disability that can prevent you from doing everyday tasks.
There are plenty of ways back injuries affect employees and their day-to-day lives as well, both professionally and otherwise.
1. Back Injuries Can Sometimes Require Invasive Surgery:
While in some cases, a back injury may be recoverable within weeks or months, more severe conditions might require an operation, such as spinal fusion surgery. Back injury-related healthcare costs can also be around $10,000 to $50,000 if a claim is made. Some people even feel pain years after surgery, so they might require another one down the line.
2. Back Injuries are Problematic for Productivity in General:
A worker suffering from back pain will most probably be taking sick leaves, and will not be able to work regardless of the type of job they have. However, it should also be noted that an employee working while suffering from back injuries can be worse for them as well as the employer. Under this circumstance, the employee will most likely worsen their condition as well as being unable to work as effectively as they normally could.
3. Back Injuries are an Expensive Problem:
Back pain injuries are expensive not just in the monetary cost, but also in terms of the productivity lost in work hours. Around 83 million workdays are lost per year due to back pain and back-related injuries which costs the US economy somewhere around $300 billion per year in healthcare costs alone.
4. Back Injuries Can Leave Someone Disabled:
A back injury can lead to chronic back pain as well, which is something that can leave you disabled for a long enough period to last you your life. In some cases, those suffering from chronic back pain can seek disability benefits as it is a medical condition that can qualify someone for Long-term Disability (LTD). Because LTD benefits can sometimes last until retirement, it is better to have prevented that in the first place.
5. Back Injuries Also Lower Quality of Life:
Even if someone is not disabled due to back injuries, it can still lead to a lower quality of life. Those that experience chronic pain from these injuries also experience sleep loss as well as a weakened immune system, which can further cause other problems. This can also interfere with their normal work routines as well as their personal lives and overall health.
6. Chronic Back Pain and Depression are Linked:
Chronic pain is a sign of depression, and some studies suggest that both are interlinked with each other. Chronic back pain can often require significant changes to one’s lifestyle, which can, for some, be excruciatingly painful both physically and mentally. It can also lead to self-esteem issues, reducing socialization as well. These symptoms can lead to depressive cycles. Some even suggest that depression leads to back pain instead of the other way around.
How Can Employers Prevent Back Injuries and Back Pain?
Accidents causing back injuries that occur at the workplace are preventable. One of the methods is to scrutinize existing safety practices and improve them. Another method is to eliminate any unnecessary physical activity that might be risky or harmful in the long or short term.
Lastly, most chronic back pain issues occur due to bad posture and physically straining activities. Employees conducting any physical activity at work is known as manual handling, and there are best practices to prevent injuries and chronic pain in the future. Employers need to provide manual handling training to ensure proper musculoskeletal health and prevent back injuries in the future.
Conclusion
Back injuries are a prevalent, costly health epidemic that affects adults the world over. Here, we discussed how back pain affects workers as well as employers. Most back injuries at work, however, are also preventable and this post also touched on how employers can help avoid back injuries in the first place.