Office Worker’s Spinal and Back Pain Issue

Every 8-hour office worker surely will be experiencing back pain during their working hours, which will make them feel uncomfortable. The back pain issue has been easily ignored by people nowadays, as they would not pay their concern much to spinal health.

As the day goes day by day, the chance of getting back pain tends to be higher, especially lower back pain due to several factors such as long time sitting in front of electronic devices and poor sitting posture. Some of the effects can be seen for getting long-term back pain like hunched back, spine inflammation, paralysis of the head and hands and dizziness.

Awareness of Bone Health in Malaysia

Back pain is a very common health problem for office workers as they could not live without using desktops and laptops. By that, it is necessary for them to spend their working time in front of electronic devices depending on their different occupations.

Doctor Tan Ling Thye, a TCM practitioner who currently works at Trimedic Healthcare Centre located in Bandar Mahkota Cheras, mentioned that the public is paying more attention to the back pain issue because the current trend is that most of them are office works, and they rarely take some break for relaxing the back tension, and mostly the problems are cervical and lumbar spine problems.

Dr Tan’s consultation room, the interview taken place during 19 July – Image by Tan Jia Qi

Tan Zhen Xin, 22, a physiotherapy final year student at UTAR Sungai Long campus, explained that the awareness is not that much, just because usually people will only have the back pain oriented then only consult and receive the treatment.

What Causes Spinal Pain?

The interviewees all agreed that poor sitting posture will really lead to spinal pain. “If you sit in the wrong postures, like for example crossing legs, then the pelvis will tilt, or if some people sit for a long time, they will experience muscle strain and might have spondylosis.

“When people sleep single-sided, for example, they sleep on their left or right arm pressed, and if the pressure increases, the pain will get worsen. Hence, people will get hand and head paralysis for this situation,” said Dr Tan.

Zhen Xin also explained that, with incorrect posture, the muscle around the backbone will get wrong. “When they curve their back, the muscle will get lengthening, so if the muscle got lengthening in a prolong time, it will get some problem that causes muscle and followed by back pain,” he added.

Zhen Xin demonstrating how muscle affects back pain during interview call on 17 July – Image by Tan Jia Qi

Claris, another UTAR physiotherapy student, claimed that people with hunched backs will increase the chance of getting serious back pain. For instance, the lower back is very painful, or in some cases, they feel like getting a tingling sensation from their butt towards their legs.

Claris explaining about tingling sensation during interview call on 21 July – Image by Tan Jia Qi

Office Workers’ Experiences

An 8-hour office worker, Boonie Ooi Hsin Yein, who works as a quantity surveyor, mentioned that she usually does not sit in a correct posture.

“I sometimes will experience back pain issues if I sit too long in front of the computer, not moving here and there. For my case is not that serious, just a minor pain,” said Boonie.

Boonie also explained that she will stretch her back to improve her back health. “I will do some stretching, just put my hands on the wall, and I just stretch my back for 3 seconds, repeat it several times. However, this is only for short-term relief.”

Boonie demonstrating how she stretches on the wall during interview call on 12 July – Image by Tan Jia Qi

Sin Chia Ling, a 25-year-old office worker, mentioned that she will try to correct her posture, trying not to lean on the back of the chair.

“I did not have any major issue; I’m doing daily exercise just to train my muscle which can support the spinal. If you get back bone injured, it will affect you in the way of your movement, and daily life activity as well,” Sin added.

Sin explaining her sitting posture during interview call on 11 July – Image by Tan Jia Qi

Advice and Prevention

In Dr Tan’s opinion, he said that cultivating the right posture is important from a young age, it is all from family education.

To avoid back pain, he added that, people can try to fix a sitting time, like 45 minutes, and take a break to walk around in the office, don’t sit too long and learn to control the time.

“People may set alarm, take a break from sitting in front of the computer. Work is inevitable. Do more exercise. I would suggest swimming for those who always have back pain because the buoyancy can help very well with spine problems,” said Dr Tan.

“Depends on office workers’ work ergonomic, whether their chair has arm rest, position of the monitor as well as the height of the table. I think it all played a factor in relieving their back pain. If it is a very serious situation, they might need to consult a physiotherapist.” Claris said.

“Choose a better ergonomic chair, so you have good support for your back. The office workers can do stretching to relieve back muscle tension and it is a good way along with correcting their posture,” said Zhen Xin.