Back pain in the community.
Lower back pain is widespread throughout the world, both in Western and Eastern cultures. In Western countries, in which more data are available, approximately 80 percent of people will at least one time in their lives suffer a back pain episode so severe as to require bed rest.
Many things could be done to improve this situation. You as an individual should complain whenever you find inappropriate seating in public offices or buildings or in public transit vehicles. If your car’s seats are inadequate, you should complain to your car dealer; better still, look for another car or consider having your car retrofitted with better seats.
I was about to write, “When choosing lounge furniture …” but an American friend of mine has advised me that in the U.S. a “lounge” generally is a bar or a women’s rest room. So I will re-phrase. I mean to comment on furniture used for relaxing at home. So I will say that when choosing living room furniture (which nearly always seems designed to cause or perpetuate back problems), you should persist until you find chairs that are properly designed. When you are in a furniture store and find seating that is poorly designed, you should tell management there that this is the case. If you complain either to a car dealer or a furniture store manager, nothing will change instantly. But enough complaints can result in reform.
Few airlines provide seating that adequately supports the lower back. This has serious consequences for some individuals who must fly long distances over a period of many hours.
Office workers should demand seating that provides adequate lumbar support. There are many sophisticated-looking and expensive office and secretarial chairs on the market that provide no lumbar support whatsoever. On the other hand, chairs that provide good support can often be found at moderate prices.
Although poor seating design is a major factor contributing to the development of lower back pain, another, more important factor is becoming increasingly evident. Where once our school physical education instructors were concerned with poor posture in our children and corrected it when they saw it, they now seem more interested in producing the best football team, the highest-scoring basketball player, and the fastest sprinter. Physical education teachers in all parts of the world no longer seem to equip our children with the information that is so necessary if they are to care for their own physical needs during a lifetime on this planet.
