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 Researchers in Finland analyzed data on more than 35,000 people in
that country who were followed for up to 30 years, and found that
smoking and obesity each raised the risk of being hospitalized for
sciatica by 33 percent or more, while regularly commuting on foot or
by bicycle lowered the risk by 33 percent.
“The harmful effects of overweight, obesity and smoking, and the
protective effect of walking or cycling to work on hospitalization
are substantial,” said lead study author Dr. Rahman Shiri of the
Finnish Institute of Occupational Health in Helsinki.
“These findings have important implications for prevention,” he told
Reuters Health by email.
About 2 to 5 percent of people have sciatica, the authors note in
the American Journal of Medicine. The painful condition typically
results from a herniated disc in the lower back and a compressed
nerve root, with shooting pain from the lower back along the sciatic
nerve that extends down the back of the thighs and legs.
Sciatica rarely leads to surgery or hospitalization, but it’s
considered one of the more long-lasting and severe low back pain
syndromes, Shiri said.
The study team analyzed data from four long-term studies with a
total of 34,589 participants and 1,259 hospitalizations for sciatica
during 12-30 years of follow-up. They looked at risk factors such as
smoking, body mass index, obesity, age, sex, education and
occupation, as well as the frequency, intensity and duration of
physical activity.
Although smoking increased the risk of hospitalization for sciatica
by 33 percent, former smokers were not at increased risk. Obesity
increased hospitalization risk by 36 percent, especially abdominal
fat, which pushed the increase to 41 percent.
At the same time, commuting to work by walking or cycling reduced
the risk by 33 percent, which was true happened regardless of body
weight and other activity.
“Other types of leisure time physical activities had no effect on
hospitalization,” Shiri added. “That was somewhat unexpected.”
Regular low-level physical activities such as walking and cycling
may be helpful because they don’t strain the lower back, the study
authors note, as opposed to higher-intensity exercise that may be
harmful.
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One limitation of the study is that it relies on self-reported data,
and the researchers are unable to verify what other health factors
were involved with hospitalization for sciatica. The studies also
used different questions about leisure-time physical activity, and
two surveys didn’t have enough information to distinguish between
potential gender-related differences.
Future studies should analyze long-term data related to these
factors and measure the physical activity directly, the study
authors write.
“It could be, for example, that there is something else associated
with smoking and independently makes people more likely to be
admitted to the hospital for sciatica,” said David Coggon, a
professor of occupational and environmental medicine at the
University of Southampton in the UK.
Perhaps more importantly, future studies should look at the major
changes in back pain and sciatica occurrence over time, Coggon
added. For example, long-term workplace absence due to low back pain
has increased eightfold between the 1950s and 1970s, said Coggon,
who wasn’t involved in the study.
“That said, there are plenty of other good reasons not to smoke, not
to be obese, and to exercise,” Coggon said. Changing habits could
have “practical implications for public health” for many disorders
or diseases, he added.
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/2u8WZFH American Journal of Medicine, online
July 24, 2017.
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