Regular walks also improved the patients’ quality of life, and the time they previously spent on sick leave was almost halved, the researchers said.
The results, published in the Lancet journal, show that walking can have a major impact on lower back pain, which affects eight out of 10 people in the UK and is a leading cause of disability worldwide.
Mark Hancock, professor of physiotherapy at Macquarie University in Australia, said that “walking is a cheap, widely available and simple exercise that can be done by almost anyone, regardless of geography, age or socio-economic status”.
Monitored the condition of more than 700 subjects
About 800 million people worldwide have low back pain, and seven out of 10 who recover from an episode of pain have a recurrence within a year. Current treatment and prevention of back pain includes a combination of exercise, therapy, and in rare cases, surgery.
But researchers say some forms of exercise are not available or accessible to everyone, and their implementation often requires supervision. Scientists followed more than 700 adults who had recently recovered from an episode of low back pain for up to three years.
Half of those randomly selected were assigned a tailored walking and education program by physical therapists, while the other participants were a control group that received no specific intervention but could seek treatment in case symptoms returned.
Hancock explains that “the intervention group had fewer episodes of pain that limited movement activities compared to the control group, and a longer average time to recurrence, with a median of 208 days to recurrence compared to 112 days.”
Benefits of walking
He added that “we don’t know exactly why walking is so good for preventing back pain, but it probably involves a combination of gentle rocking movements, loading and strengthening the structures and muscles of the spine, relaxation and stress relief, and the release of endorphins for good mood.”“Of course, we also know that walking comes with many other health benefits, including cardiovascular health, bone density, healthy weight and improved mental health.”
Dr Natasha Potsovi, a researcher at Macquarie University, says that “walking not only improves people’s quality of life, but also cuts absenteeism from work and the need to seek healthcare by around half”.
“Our study has shown that this effective and affordable form of exercise has the potential to be successfully applied on a much larger scale than other forms of exercise.”