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(NewsNation) — A person getting in more steps may help prevent them from having chronic back pain, according to a new study.
The JAMA Network Open study found that walking 100 minutes a day was associated with a 23 percent reduced risk of chronic low back pain (LBP). Nearly 12,000 participants aged 20 years or older were included in the analysis.
“Our findings suggest that daily walking volume is more important than mean walking intensity in reducing the risk of chronic LBP,” the study said.
“A similar observation was made in a recent meta-analysis examining the association of total step volume and step intensity (ie, stepping rate) with mortality, which found inconsistent evidence that step intensity is associated with mortality beyond the total step volume,” researchers added.
Participants walking 101 to 124 minutes per day had a risk ratio of 0.77 for chronic back pain, while those walking 125 minutes or more per day had a 0.76 risk ratio. Also, participants with walking intensity of 3.00 to 3.11 MET per minute had a risk ratio for chronic LBP of 0.85.
Low back pain affects people of all ages and is the leading cause of functional health loss, which accounts for 7.7 percent of all years lived with disability.
