The Carl Todd Clinic : Take care of your workforce

Employee Home › Take care of your body › Take care of your workforce

Back pain affects most people at one time or another. In the UK, it is the leading single reported cause of absence from work, and the primary cause of disability.

Almost half the adult population report low back pain lasting for at least a day each year, and it's estimated that up to 80% will experience back pain lasting more than a day at some point during their life.

Back pain is most common in people with skilled manual, partly skilled or unskilled jobs. Many jobs can cause back problems without involving any form of traumatic injury. These include (but are not limited to):

• Driving a vehicle or train, or operating a piece of machinery
such as a crane or bulldozer
• Work involving intensive use of the telephone without a headset

• Computer-based work
• Supermarket cashiers

People with severe, persistent low back pain or chronic repetitive strain injury may complain of continuous pain if not treated promptly and effectively. This is likely to lead to time off work, which – if it continues – may result in dismissal.

Are your employees offered a referral system for treatment of their musculoskeletal pain? If not, read on to learn more about the cost of back pain to business, and how we can help you improve the physical health of your workforce.

• Reports have estimated that the total cost of back pain corresponds to between 1% and 2%
  of the UK's Gross National Product (GNP).
• The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) have estimated that work-related musculoskeletal
  disorders cost employers between £590 million and £624 million per year.
• Musculoskeletal disorders were the most commonly reported type of ‘work-related’ illness
  in a recent survey of self-reported work-related illness (SW01/02).
• Over one year 520,000 people suffered from a disorder mainly affecting their back,
meaning that on any one day, about 1% of the working-age population are on sickness absence
due to a back problem.
• Five million working days were lost through bad backs in 2003/4, and each sufferer took an average
of 20 days off during that period.
• At any one time 430,000 people in the UK are receiving Social Security payments
primarily for back problems.

The average absence for illness in a company of 3,000 is about 150 employees (5% of the workforce) each year. Around 30% of the days lost are due to musculoskeletal problems, and 60% of these are related to the back and neck. This means that 1% of the workforce will be off work due to back problems in any given year.

The osteopathic care we provide can lead to a fitter workforce with improved morale, which in turn helps to increase productivity and reduce time off due to ill health. Our treatment can also lessen the degree of work-related pain people experience, and reduce the number of instances of disability, stress, tension and depression.

We work with companies of all sizes, but in larger businesses, such as at Honda in Swindon, we are often retained as a part of the company's medical team. Some of our work is involved in the prevention of problems, but where people do encounter problems, we aim to ensure that they can continue working, or that they can return to work as soon as possible. As a result, we have helped many businesses to considerably reduce the costs incurred through work-related illness and lost productivity.

"After six weeks of severe low-back pain, as well as numbness and weakness in my leg, from which I could get no diagnosis or relief, it was recommended that I see Carl Todd. He examined me and diagnosed my problem immediately as a slipped disc. Unbelievably, after my first treatment I was relieved of the intense pain I had been in."
Colleen Prendergast

We would be happy to provide your company with further information and statistics regarding osteopathy in the workplace. To receive such information, or to discuss your business's requirements, simply get in touch.