Experts warn office employees against sitting for longer hours

 

 

 

Speaking during a press conference at Women and Neonatal hospital Mulago ahead of the International day for physiotherapists slated for September 8, the president of Uganda Association of Physiotherapy Susan Akori said cases of such conditions at the facility had escalated, adding that on a daily basis, 30 cases are registered of which most them are people working in offices.  

 

Akori said the most of the people they receive are affected by low back pain coupled with muscle spasms. Low back pain is the pain that lasts between four and 12 weeks.

 

"Besides sitting for longer hours, there is poor posture, when people sit, they slouch so much instead of sitting upright with their back upright," Akori said.

 

She also attributed the problem of low back pain to the kind of chairs people use in their offices saying that they are not ergonomically friendly.

 

She advised people to use adjustable chairs, and spare some time and stretch a bit.

 

Meanwhile, physiotherapists are lobbing the government to come up with a law regulating the practice of Gym instructors and massage therapists.

 

"As medical workers, we get a number of people who have got injuries and other health complications from gyms and massage spurs. We feel the gym instructors and massage therapists should be regulated," Willbroad Makumbi physiotherapists said.

 

Makumbi said, "Exercises are good but not all exercises are beneficial, sometimes a person is not capable of doing exercises which she or he has been instructed to do. In the end, such people end up injuring themselves instead of benefiting from the exercise. It is important for people to go to the gym where their instructor is well trained," Makumbi said.

 

A physiotherapist helps people with chronic pain to develop the skills they need to manage and take control of their condition, increase their activity and improve their quality of life.