Prevention of lumbar disc herniation in young adult population – Collecting data for the awareness campaign

Abstract

Introduction. Our previous paper discussed the increasing number of young adult population with lumbar disc herniation in the past few years. Most of the patients who seek medical attendance are young healthy male adults. They workout at the gym for a variety of reasons such as weight loss, muscle toning and increasing muscle mass. They are either unaware of the risk that certain exercises involve, or they wish to get faster results, obtaining the opposite effects. Thus, many of them develop lumbar disc herniation at a young age and must maintain certain restraints in order to stop it from evolving or reoccurring. The ideal solution is to increase awareness at the already numerous young male population who frequents the gym to prevent disc herniation. Material and method. The next step for our awareness campaign is to collect data directly from the source. A carefully created questionnaire with specific questions related to general knowledge, way of training and individual research on the topic was given to young adult males in many gyms from Bucharest. The questionnaire was completely anonymous and targeted young adult males which had to respond truthfully and give away only their age. Results and discussions. The statistics show that most of the responders to the questionnaire did know about lumbar disc herniation and the risk involved in exercises such as weightlifting but did not possess the proper knowledge of how to do certain movements in order to prevent it. Conclusions. The data collected showed that most of the young male adults which frequent the gym are not fully prepared with enough knowledge in order to do certain exercises without risking lumbar disk herniation. We must continue our campaign of awareness in this category of population in order to reduce the number of young patients with this disease. Keywords: lumbar disc herniation, gym, low back pain, exercises,