With the advent of the internet and access to a greater volume of information that is even easier to reach, the 21st century brings greater dynamics to people’s lives. Consequently, we propose to do more and, therefore, have “less time” for leisure activities or even feel the incompletness of our activities.
“Time is Money”. Fact: nowadays, time is worth a lot of money or even more: quality of life. Have You ever calculated the time You spend from home to work? Do You have any idea of how much time does Your neighbor or relative spends on this journey? According to IBGE data, Brazilians spend an average of 5% of their wages with the time travel from home to work.
In Belo Horizonte the average time to commute to work was 36.6 minutes, according to data from PNAD (National Household Survey) in 2012. To get an idea about the cost of this time in larger cities, the economy of the Metropolitan Region of Rio de Janeiro is the one that loses the most in the whole country due to the long trips made by a large part of the workers. The cost of this time that could be invested in production reached R$ 35.7 billion in 2014, according to a survey by the newspaper O GLOBO, and corresponds to 8.1% of the region's GDP (Gross Domestic Product).
With so many changes and difficulties imposed by the growth of cities, people have been looking for other ways to solve the “lack of time”, proposing to work at home and divide their working hours a bit, allowing their days to be occupied with more varied functions and activities. In this scenario, everything that you can do on your own, offers the great advantage of saving time, greater efficiency and precision in your practice.
Now that I have contextualized You, let's move on to a subject that is not only part of my area of expertise, but is also closely linked to the contemporary life: sedentary lifestyle, low back and joint pain.
In the world, the prevalence of low back pain is high (mainly among adults aged 30 to 50) and, at some point in their lives, approximately 80% of the population will experience one or more episodes of low back pain (Deyo, 2006; Anderson et al, 1999). The prevalence of low back pain is extremely common, affecting around 40% of adults in the general population. Between these extremes, the prevalence for neck and shoulder pain is 15-20% and for knee pain, temporomadibular dysfunction and chronic diffuse pain is 10-15% (Crombie et al, 1999).
Considering the sedentary lifestyle, this is represented by about 62% of the Brazilian population (IBGE 2017; PNAD, 2015) and, according to WHO data, approximately 70% of the world population is sedentary.
Low back pain is a condition that can affect up to 65% of people annually and up to 84% of people at some point in life (Walker, 2000), with a prevalence of approximately 12% in the world’s population (Hoy et al, 2012), which causes great demands from health services (Hart et al, 1995).
In terms of productivity, low back pain causes losses in the order of 30%, in addition to indirect costs, represented by work absence and wage reduction.
In an article published in the year of 2000 (Alfredsson et al.), occupational factors related to low back pain were analyzed. The results showed that, in both sexes, both sedentary lifestyle and working with heavy loads represent risk indicators for developing and perpetuating low back pain.
To give you an idea, in the United States the estimated total annual cost of lost productive time due to low back pain, arthritis and musculoskeletal pain was almost US$ 42 billion in 2002. The average lost of productive time was 5 hours weekly (Stewart et al, 2003). In 2014, about 69 million (28.6%) of adults in the country reported low back pain lasting between 1 day and 3 months. There, the estimated total cost related to low back pain exceeds US$ 100 billion each year, 2/3 being indirect costs (Blackwell et al, 2014; Katz et al, 2006).
Low back pain still accounts for 15% of all work absenteeism in Norway (Werner & Côté, 2009), with Western Society being the most common and most expensive cause of this (Heymans et al, 2009).
In Brazil, musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) are among the main causes of claims and granting sickness benefits, reaching 18.7% of the total, which represents 26.4% from the cases of disability pensions.
MSDs are the leading causes of absenteeism-illness worldwide, with an estimated annual cost of £ 100 billion (around R$ 740 billion), equivalent to 600,000 new cases of disability per year, according to the Fit for Work Europe survey.
In view of the many problems and consequences that sedentary living brings to citizens - regardless of their nationality - one should, therefore, seek regular practice of physical activities. Choose any one, as long as it is the one that provides you with pleasure, well-being and, in case of muscle or joint pain, specific and effective treatments should be sought, so that recovery takes place as quickly and satisfactorily as possible.
The Physiotherapy in the 21st century will evolve into activities done at home based on instructions given by health professionals to their patients. The MDT or McKenzie Method offers this change of habit, which will be introduced naturally to contemporary life.
Over a few more years, perhaps a decade, patients will be even more equipped with information and, therefore, empowered to prevent and - if necessary - treat symptoms that they know how to recognize in time. Thus, it will be possible to avoid, even more effectively, their absence from work, as well as increase the efficiency in the time spent at their treatment, until complete recovery.
What is needed now is your constant information and clarification, so that each one of You patients have a critical awareness of what treatments to seek. Make use of this right: ask. Opinion is only created through full information.
