Hundreds of thousands of children have back pain

Hundreds of thousands of children in Germany suffer from back pain.

Many children suffer from back pain. It is estimated that up to 300,000 children in Germany are receiving medical treatment at an early age because of back problems. This is one of the surprising results that the current health and medical aid report of the statutory health insurance Barmer GEK offers. Also interesting: the expenditures of health insurance for medical supplies and aids have continued to rise massively and are now almost ten billion euros.

Already two year olds are being fed with painkillers
The figures were quoted by Bremen-based health expert Prof. Gerd Glaeske at the presentation of the healing and medical aid report that Bamer GEK has prepared together with scientists from the Center for Social Policy (ZeS) at the University of Bremen. In particular, the high number of children with back pain is, in his view of Glaeske extremely noticeable. And Rolf-Ulrich Schlenker Bamer GEK added that the number of children with unspecific back pain diagnosis and physiotherapy regulation must be startling, because it „It is striking that there are so many. "Worrying is also that, according to the health and medical aid report, 51 percent of children with back pain prescribed painkillers, only 30 percent, however, physiotherapy.Alternatively, the painkillers are also used in physiotherapies accompanying. In some cases, even two-year-olds have been prescribed ibuprofen as a painkiller by the doctor. „The children are fed with medicines, but not strengthened in their resources“, emphasized Prof. Gerd Glaeske.

Back pain from lack of exercise, poor posture and heavy school bags
The fact that most children's back problems are a result of lack of exercise, poor posture, heavy school bags or unsuitable school furniture, is undisputed among professionals. Rolf-Ulrich Schlenker even assumes that "the causes are actually often in the educational environment" and deficits such as lack of exercise on physiotherapy at the expense of health insurance will be compensated. "This raises the question of whether too much medicine is used in children," emphasized the Barmer GEK Vice - Chairman. Since the statutory health insurance companies do not want to stay on top of the follow-up costs, they recommend, for example, to prevent sports, in order to avoid the occurrence of back pain and the subsequent physiotherapy at the expense of the funds.

Prevention instead of physiotherapy
The health economist, Prof. Gerd Glaeske, is of the opinion that physiotherapy is too fast and too often used in children. Thus, 4.7 percent of all children up to the age of 13 received physiotherapy last year, although the symptoms could often have been compensated with sports. Here, the experts also see the kindergartens and schools in the duty to take more care of the regular physical exercise of the children. „Prevention needs to be strengthened instead of treating children later“, explained in this connection Rolf-Ulrich Schlenker. The fact that the experts refer to improved prevention of back pain as part of the presentation of the Healing and Aid Report is also understandable for other reasons. Because the massively rising costs of remedies and remedies trigger alarm signals for them and physiotherapy due to back pain is one of the strongest cost factors in the segment.

Remedies and aids cost the health insurance companies 10 billion
About 10 billion euros or 6 percent of the total budget, the statutory health insurance paid last year for remedies and aids. Under aids are utensils such as wheelchairs, hearing aids, deposits or support stockings to understand, remedies are, for example, physiotherapy, speech or ergo therapies. The costs of the Barmer GEK for remedies increased by 8.4 percent last year to 670.8 million euros and those of the aids by 4.3 percent to 618.4 million euros. Together, the remedies and aids account for 3.12 percent of the total expenditure of Barmer GEK. The biggest cost of the remedies is physiotherapy, and back pain is the most common reason. „We are evidently a country of back sick people“, explains Rolf-Ulrich Schlenker, stressing that every sixth insured benefits from remedies. For example, Barmer GEK spent over € 442 million on physiotherapy for back pain, an increase of ten percent over the previous year.

Depending on age and region, very different prescription practices
The regional and, depending on the age, very different prescription practice is also questionable for study director Prof. Glaeske. For example, children under the age of 13 who were insured under the GEK received an average of 4.7 per cent of physiotherapy, with every second one suffering from back pain. Often children under the age of two are treated for unspecific back problems or abnormalities in 2008. In 2008, 10.3 percent of girls treated for back pain and 7.4 percent of boys were under two years old.

While the use of appropriate remedies is handled relatively generously in young patients, the experts still see considerable need to catch up with older, ill people. For example, the evaluation of the GEK data showed that there are considerable deficits in the physiotherapeutic care of incurable cancer patients, said Prof. Glaeske. According to this, only 18 percent of cancer patients were treated with remedies before they died in 2008. „The palliative care in Germany urgently needs to be expanded“, emphasized Prof. Glaeske and added: „At the beginning of life physiotherapy is often used too quickly, but at the end of life it is used too sparingly.“ Within the scope of the medical and medical aid report, there was a markedly different regional regulatory practice for the medical aids. Rolf-Ulrich Schlenker is surprised that in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern about twice as many children were given deposits as in Baden-Württemberg: "In North Germany, the emphasis seems to be on flat feet"

Criticism of lack of transparency in the field of remedies and aids
In general, Schlenker and Glaeske criticized the lack of transparency in the area of ​​remedies and remedies, because a benefit assessment still does not exist, explained Prof. Glaeske. The expert supplemented: „There is a lot of money spent on it, but we do not know what the various treatments ultimately bring.“ However, in the light of the cost explosion and the dynamic growth in the field, the experts believe that a clear medical benefit must be recognized and substantiated. Regarding the regulation of physiotherapy for children Prof. Glaeske added: „Remedies are useful in nurturing children and not in compensating for the lack of exercise at school.“

Lightweight exercises can help against back pain. The specialist in osteopathic remedies, Thorsten Fischer, has published numerous back pain exercises that can also be used for prevention. (fp, 06.10.2010)

Also read:
Doctors: Naturopathy relieves back pain
Back pain helps exercise
More and more children have back pain