Per year, every compulsorily insured person is absent from work at least four and a half days due to back pain. This translates into around one fourth of all days missed at work and applies to one in five persons who enter early retirement.
Back pain is the most expensive illness
Treatment runs to ten billion euros annually. And an additional 15 billion is lost due to loss of productivity, work-related disability and early retirement.
Back pain increasingly affects younger people
80.5 % of all men and as much as 85.5% of all women between 25 and 34 years-of-age have reported having suffered from back pain at some point in time.
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At least two-thirds of all Germans suffered from back pain in the last 12 months. In 1998, the number was only 53%. An increase has in particular been observed in young people between the ages of 14 and 29. But only 27% of those questioned sought the advice of a doctor.
