QUESTION What risk factors have been identified for the first episode of low back pain in children and adolescents? Have these risk factors been validated? DESIGN Systematic review of prospective studies designed to identify possible modifiable and non-modifiable risk factors for the onset of low back pain in children and adolescents. PARTICIPANTS School children aged up to 18 years without...

INTRODUCTION Low back pain effects up to 80% of the population at some time during their active life. Questionnaires are available to help measure pain and disability. The Oswestry Disability Index (ODI) is the most commonly used outcome measure for low back pain. The aim of this study was to see if training in completing the ODI forms improved the scoring accuracy. PATIENTS AND METHODS The l...

BACKGROUND Urban taxi drivers differ from other professional drivers in their exposures to physical and psychosocial hazards in the work environment. Epidemiological data on low back pain (LBP) of this occupational group are very scarce. AIMS To examine LBP in taxi drivers and its association with prolonged driving and other occupational factors. METHODS We analyzed the cross-sectional data...

Psychologically and physically straining work conditions increase the risk of low back pain (LBP) development. According to recent recovery theories, leisure time recovery can counteract the negative influences of work stress on health. Similarly, a recent empirical work has indicated a moderating role of recovery on the link between stress and health issues. In this paper, a theoretical model ...

Stabilization exercise program has become the most popular treatment method in spinal rehabilitation since it has shown its effectiveness in some aspects related to pain and disability. However, some studies have reported that specific exercise program reduces pain and disability in chronic but not in acute low back pain, although it can be helpful in the treatment of acute low back pain by red...

Received: 29 Jun. 2015 Accepted: 24 Oct. 2015

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the reliability and validity of the improved version of the Patient Generated Index (PGI) in patients with low back pain. METHODS The PGI was administered to 90 patients attending care in 1 of 6 institutions in Norway and evaluated for reliability and validity. The questionnaire was given out to 61 patients for re-test purposes. RESULTS The PGI was completed correctly ...

The goal of this work is to present methodology to first evaluate the performance of an in vivo spine system and then to synthesize optimal neuromuscular control for rehabilitation interventions. This is achieved (1) by determining control system parameters such as static feedback gains and delays from experimental data, (2) by synthesizing the optimal feedback gains to attenuate the effect of ...