If you smoke, watch out for low back pain
If you needed another reason to cut the cigarette habit: Smokers, especially younger smokers, are more likely to report low back pain than people who have never smoked, according to a new analysis.
After examining existing research, Finnish researchers concluded smoking is “modestly” associated with the risk of low back pain and the effects may be “at least partly reversible.” Their findings are published in the January issue of the American Journal of Medicine.
Dr. Rahman Shiri of the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health and colleagues wanted to know if smoking increases the risk of low back pain, a problem that affects an estimated 8 in 10 adults during some point in their lives.
Previous analysis of the existing research came to different conclusions, with one study suggesting an association between smoking and low back pain and the other reporting “unclear findings.”
The Finnish researchers identified and reviewed 81 studies from around the world involving smokers, former smokers, or never-smokers and low back pain conducted between 1966 and 2009. Of those, 40 studies involving more than 300,000 adults and adolescents met the standards for the analysis.
The Finnish team subjected the data of the individual studies to further statistical analysis to tease out the strength of relationships even as the studies reported various outcomes.
They determined that even though the data did not prove smoking leads to low back pain, the analysis of previous the literature suggested a “fairly modest” association between smoking and low back pain.
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