Effectiveness and safety of back support belts in occupational settings

¶ … Belts: A proposition unlikely to decrease injury.

According to the website of Professional Equipment, a manufacturer of safety and support products for workers, back belts, a kind of corset, "rigorously enhance lumbar and abdominal support. Built-in lumbar zone protection pad firmly supports the most vulnerable upper region of the lower lumbar spine. However, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) dismisses such claims, noting that it has found that "the most effective way to prevent back injury is to implement an ergonomics program that focuses on redesigning the work environment and work tasks to reduce the hazards of lifting" ("Back belts," 1996, NIOSH).

Despite Professional Equipment's promotional materials that cheerfully show workers performing arduous tasks pain-free, no evidence supports the fact that back belts reduce back injuries. In fact, as the belts have been increasingly used in industry, there has been a dramatic increase in the number of workers experiencing back injuries. Also, no studies conclusively show that the relationship between back belt use and the forces exerted on the spine during manual lifting could even theoretically reduce a worker's risk to incur such an injury ("Back belts," NIOSH, 1996,). The belts could even create a false sense of security, and cause a worker to insufficiently support his or her activities by engaging the appropriate abdominal muscles.

In 2000, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC's) National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) released a comprehensive study on the use of back belts that was published in the December 6, 2000 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). It found "found no statistically significant difference between the incidence rate of workers' compensation claims for job-related back injuries among employees who reported using back belts usually every day, and the incidence rate of such claims among employees who reported never using back belts or using them no more than once or twice a month" ("FAQ: Back belts," 2001, NIOSH).

Specifically, there was no statistically significant difference comparing the back injury rate among workers who wore back belts every day and the back injury rate among workers who wore them no more than once or twice a month. There was also no statistically significant difference between the incidence of self-reported back pain among workers who wore back belts every day, and the incidence of self- reported back pain amongst workers who wore them no more than once or twice a month. Finally, there was no statistically significant difference between the rate of back injury claims in stores requiring the use of back belts and the rate in stores where back belt use was voluntary ("FAQ: Back belts," 2001, NIOSH).

While there could be unrelated correlative factors that could create such a relationship for any one of these findings, the weight of the evidence seems to suggest that the use of back belts cannot be relied upon. To reduce back injuries, the study suggested employers should check the health history of their workers! A history of back injury was the strongest risk factor for predicting either a back-injury claim or reported back pain among employees, regardless of back-belt use ("Back belts," 1996, NIOSH).