Do You Need a Lumbar Support Belt?

Back belts have often been touted as a way to provide extra support to the back and thus prevent strains, sprains or other back injuries. Weight lifters traditionally wear support belts, so some felt similar belts would protect workers whose jobs require them to lift heavy objects. However, others have argued that reliance on lumbar support belts weakens the back muscles and can actually result in more injuries.

Pros

• A study of 36,000 warehouse workers conducted between 1989 and 1994 by University of California Los Angeles School of Public Health found significantly fewer back injuries once a policy requiring workers to wear lumbar support belts was implemented. A properly worn back belt can provide additional support to lumbar muscles, according to the Environmental Health and Safety Department of the University of California, Riverside. The belt should be tightened only while the worker is lifting or performing other strenuous work; otherwise, it should be worn loose.

  Back belts can also make employees more mindful of their backs and the things they need to do to protect their backs, such as practicing proper lifting techniques, maintaining good posture, and not lifting too heavy a load.

Cons

• When researchers from the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health studied retail workers for two years to see if wearing a lumbar support belt would help prevent injuries, they found no significant difference in the rate of worker's compensation claims due to back injury between workers who wore back belts and those who did not. And a study of 1,316 workers at an Air Force base found that workers who wore lumbar support belts had a higher rate of back injuries and lost more time off work than those who didn't wear belts.

  Just as wearing a back belt may make some workers more aware and inclined to be more cautious, lumbar support belts may cause some workers to be overconfident and take unnecessary risks, such as lifting heavier loads.

  Also, in order to provide the best support, a back belt should be worn snugly against the lumbar spine. Some workers may find this too uncomfortable and loosen the belt, thus limiting its effectiveness.

Summary

• The Environmental Health and Safety Department at the University of California, Riverside recommends proper education as the most effective method for reducing back injuries in the workplace. Workers who understand proper lifting techniques and don't try to lift loads that are too heavy have fewer injuries.

  Workers who do a lot of heavy lifting may benefit from a lumbar support belt, but only if they're trained in how to properly wear it--to tighten it for heavy lifting tasks, and to loosen it at other times.