Two-thirds have back pain, says CSP

Back pain is far more common than previously thought - and sedentary work is one of the causes.

An online poll carried out for the physiotherapists' union CSP found that 68% of people were affected by back pain at least once in the last 12 months. A third of sufferers experienced five or more episodes over the course of the year.

Publication of the findings comes in the wake of a compensation award of nearly £30,000 to a senior nurse who suffered a severe back injury lifting a hospital theatre table.

Theatre sister Shelley Quantrill damaged her back lifting part of a theatre table at South Tyneside District Hospital. No risk assessment of the task had been carried out.