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Make backs last a lifetime

Couch potato lifestyles, poor diets and the emphasis on more academic subjects at school is setting children up for back problems later in life.

That is the message going out to mark BackCare Week 2004 (11 to 17 October). To help ensure backs do last a lifetime, the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy (CSP) has produced a leaflet offering some suggestions.
Following a theme of 'from the cradle to the grave', the leaflet aims to make it clear that back problems do not discriminate with age and prevention is better than cure.

It follows the successful 'Backs for the future' leaflet, produced by the CSP in 2002 to provide parents with the know-how to counteract bad habits and encourage behaviour that will help their children live healthier and pain-free lives.

Childhood back pain can be triggered by heavy school bags and 'ill-fitting classroom furniture', says the leaflet. It also notes how changes in the curriculum have led to less emphasis on physical education and more on academic subjects, along with a reduction in personal lockers and desks with storage space.

Teenage backs also have to deal with the effects of puberty. Growth spurts cause big structural changes within the body as bones, muscles, nerves and connective tissues lengthen. Equally, different parts of the body may take longer to grow than others and this can sometimes result in temporarily uneven posture and pain from tightness or over-stretching muscles and nerves.

Physiotherapists warn that unless children regularly begin putting their bodies through a full range of motion, elasticity will cease, muscles will weaken and joints will stiffen up. Under these conditions, backs become particularly vulnerable, and by adulthood, could be feeling the full effects of an inactive youth.

Parents can help children build regular activity into their leisure time and prevent them from developing bad habits by making sure they have a supportive chair in which to do homework. It also stresses the need for children using computers to position the monitor so the screen is at eye level to prevent them from craning their necks.

The leaflet also advises youngsters and their parents or carers where to seek help if they are already experiencing pain. Find out more by visiting www.csp.org.uk.