New report suggests solutions to the financial burden of employee low back pain

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Hocoma, a developer of robotic and sensor-based medical devices for functional movement therapy, has released a special report addressing new options to decrease the costs and loss of productivity associated with employee low back pain.

This report looks at the effects of back pain in the workplace, as well as some of the proactive steps employers can take to reduce low back pain, including the implementation of gamification treatment to employee wellness programmes.

The report, which focuses on the USA, discusses a growing global employer concern—the costs resulting from low back pain in the workplace. Over 84% of the US population will experience at least one episode of low back pain in their lifetime and nearly one in four employees reported experiencing lower back pain in the past three months. Additional low back pain facts detailed in the special report affecting corporate profits include:

  • Annual cost of low back pain to employers per 100 workers amounts to US$34,600.
  • Back pain is the number one cause for work related disability in USA.
  • Employees with back pain are absent an average of four days more each year than those without back pain, at total costs in lost productivity of US$13,100 per 100 workers annually.
  • Presenteeism, or the act of attending work while sick, related to back pain adds up to a loss of US$8,300 per 100 workers annually.

“The epidemic of low back pain in the workplace takes a toll not just on the health and lives of workers but also on the companies and organisations for which they work,” said Frank Menzler, executive vice president of Hocoma. “However, back pain is often both treatable and preventable. C-suite, human resource and corporate wellness executives can look to this special report to learn new options to alleviate the pain to their companies’ bottom line.”