Sickness absence due to low back pain

• sickness absence
• back pain
• physical work load
• job satisfaction

In a recent interesting study published in your journal, Hoogendoorn and colleagues1 determined that high physical work load and job dissatisfaction increase the risk of sickness absence due to low back pain. I would like to focus on the job satisfaction variable.

It is to be noted that the above study was performed in a prospective fashion with employed workers who had no recent history of low back pain injury. As such, I would like to familiarise the readership with a series of studies performed with chronic low back pain (CLBP) patients treated …