Obesity and age have no direct influence in back pain, but they could prolong healing. Professional occupation and binding position are factors that affect back pain. Physical workload can cause the manifestation of sciatica; whereas psycho-social factors can prolong the overall healing process (Ibrahimi-Kaçuri 116).
There is a lack of a clear dose-response relationship between body mass index (BMI) and low back pain (Mirtz 2).
The present study demonstrated that height loss, but not body composition (muscle, fat, body weight, and bone mass), was related to LBP in community-dwelling elderly people (Endo 207).
Although some of the studies identified a weak correlation, there was insufficient evidence to establish a direct causal relationship between obesity and LBP. A link could reasonably be expected between these two factors, since these conditions share many similarities; including lower occupational status, sedentary lifestyle and psychological distress. A mild positive relationship between weight and recurrent or chronic low back pain; although a direct causal link was not found. This signifies that perhaps obesity contributes to some important factors concealed within the heterogeneous nature of low back pain. Although LBP may not be directly correlated with obesity, it was found that each might be related to anxiety, depression, and psychological distress. Obesity is viewed as an important factor in the pathogenesis of LBP. On the other hand, obesity in isolation could demonstrate no influence, but rather certain types of obesity may be present in people with generally poor lifestyle, and that LBP occurs as a result of the combination of several slovenly habits” in such a population (Gasibat 38).
Obesity is modestly positively associated with low back pain, in particular with chronic or recurrent low back pain. However, because the association is weak, because there is no consistent positive monotonic dose response, and because the link disappears in monozygotic twins who are dissimilar in body mass index, it is unlikely that this association is causal. It is possible, however, that obesity plays a part in the chronicity of simple low back pain (Leboeuf-Yde 779).
Although obesity is associated with lower back pain, it has not been proven to be causal (Freedman S57).
We concluded that there is no evidence in the current literature to support obesity that is not in the highest quintile as a cause of low back pain (Garzillo 601).
Although several risk factors have been identified, including occupational posture, depressive moods, obesity, body height, and age, the causes of the onset of low back pain remain obscure and the diagnosis is difficult to make (Moussa 55).
Although mechanical low back pain usually starts between the ages of 35 and 55 years, sex, height, weight, posture and general strength and fitness seem to have little if any bearing on the matter (Mathews 343).
The analyses presented here provide some evidence that the relationship between back pain and obesity is not necessarily causal, but is in part secondary to lifestyle changes associated with ill health (Lake 249).
