title: Preventive aspects regarding back pain.
abstract: Prevention, as the act of keeping from happening, aims to avert things that would occur if no intervention would be taken. From the epidemiology of back pain, consequences of the disease that are worth preventing can be derived. Biological, psychological, and social factors lead to back pain and chronification and ultimately to various adverse outcomes. The most important preventable consequences of back pain include loss of ability to function in daily life, loss of work productivity, sickness absence, and disability pension, excessive and inappropriate healthcare utilisation, impairments in quality of life, and disturbance of sexual life. The most important tools for prevention of back pain lie within rehabilitation after acute pain treatment and include exercise and physical training as well as health education and increasing health literacy. The bio-psycho-social nature of back pain must be taken into account in all preventive measures.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Social Medicine, Centre for Public Health, Medical University of Vienna, Kinderspitalgasse 15/I, 1090, Vienna, Austria. thomas.dorner@meduniwien.ac.at.
authors.forename: Thomas E
authors.initials: TE
authors.lastname: Dorner
authors.affiliation: Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Medical University of Vienna, Kinderspitalgasse 15/I, 1090, Vienna, Austria.
authors.forename: Richard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Crevenna
mesh_terms: D001416:Back Pain / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology / Q000517:prevention & control* / Q000534:rehabilitation; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004185:Disability Evaluation; D005081:Exercise Therapy; D006266:Health Education; D057220:Health Literacy; D006801:Humans; D019547:Neck Pain / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology / Q000517:prevention & control* / Q000534:rehabilitation; D026741:Physical Therapy Modalities; D016896:Treatment Outcome
keywords: Back pain; Epidemiology; Neck pain; Prevention; Rehabilitation