But it’s not luck the CCA is focusing on, it’s lifestyle and habits. Through their short quiz covering work, lifestyle, exercise and even sleep habits, the CCA is hoping to open some eyes to a few common causes of back problems and maybe even change a habit or two.

The quiz, part of the CCA’s national public awareness campaign “What’s Holding You Back?” asks participants to answer a handful of questions regarding potential back-pain contributors like back packs and sleeping position, and then takes the participant’s score and determines the likelihood of future back pain.

The association developed the quiz and campaign in response to a recent survey in which it was determined that over 22 million Canadians experience back pain each year. Thirty percent of the respondents said their pain lasted for more than a month and kept them from performing certain activities. Most of the respondents reported doing little more than toughing out their pain or taking an aspirin.

Ergonomics, however, has the potential to make back pain more manageable. In the September, 2003 issue of The Ergonomics Report^™, Stover Snook, Ph.D., CPE, stated that the key to keeping back pain from impacting a workforce is by designing jobs with the assumption that the worker will have back pain. Ultimately that means jobs should be designed so that the worker with back pain can comfortably perform the job; additionally, workers without back pain would likely be facing fewer risk factors for back pain as well. For more information on the CCA’s “What’s Holding You Back?” campaign, including a link to the quiz, visit www.ccachiro.org. To request a free copy of The Ergonomics Report, published monthly by Ergoweb Inc., visit www.ergoweb.com/publications/er.