A new study published in Spine examines how fitness can affect nurses with nonspecific low back pain.
The study authors examined 219 female nursing personnel with nonspecific low back pain and assessed their physical activity, cardiorespiratory fitness and neuromuscular fitness. The study authors found:
1. The average costs for nurses who met the physical activity recommendations were 80.5 percent lower than those who didn't.
2. Nurses who reported higher daily intensity 10-minute activity sessions reported lower costs than women whose intensity was in the lowest tertile.
3. Nurses in the highest tertile of cardiorespiratory fitness, which researchers measured with a six-minute walk test, reported 77 percent lower costs when compared with nurses in the lowest tertile.
4. In the modified push-up test, nurses in the highest third of scores reported 84 percent lower total costs than those in the bottom tertile.
5. The study authors concluded, "High cardiorespirator and muscular fitness and meeting physical activity recommendations for aerobic and muscular fitness were strongly associated with lower total costs among nursing personnel with pain-related disorders of recurrent nonspecific owe back pain." Increased physical activity could also save on healthcare costs and lower sick-leave costs.