I work in a canning factory and have been here for 25 years. I notice that lots of people are out for back pain even though the job is not that hard. I often suspect they just don’t like their jobs. Is there any evidence to prove that’s possible?

Low back pain (LBP) in the work place is costing American businesses billions of dollars in lost productivity. Many studies have been done to figure out the how, why, and who of back pain.

We know that on any given day about 15 per cent of the work force has LBP. Some come to work while others stay home. Caucasian (white) blue-collar workers are the most likely to report episodes of LBP. Workers without a high school diploma are three times more likely to have LBP compared to workers with a diploma or college degree.

Psychologic factors such as job satisfaction has been shown to be linked with LBP. The cost of absenteeism due to back pain combined with lost production time for those who do come to work with LBP is estimated at $7.4 billion/year.

How much of that cost is directly caused by job dissatisfaction is unknown. Scientists are studying ways to predict which workers will have back pain based on a wide range of factors known to be related to LBP.