Lower back pain in France: how new apps can help relieve it

People who suffer from lower back pain now have a choice of apps to help them navigate their condition.

Lower back pain (lombalgie) affects the majority of people: a recent French study of the working population found that it had affected 54% of women and 59% of men over the previous 12 months.

Ameli, France’s state healthcare website, says that 84% of people in the western world suffer lower back pain at some point in their lives.

Lombalgie echoes the old-fashioned English term of ‘lumbago’, referring to pain in the lumbar region of the spine. This stretches from your lowest rib down to your buttocks.

The vast majority of cases are lombalgie commune, meaning that there’s no underlying illness to explain the pain.

Symptoms and causes

The pain typically centres in the lower back, but may radiate through the glutes, hips or legs. Most patients feel a dull ache or discomfort that makes movements feel stiff and unnatural, limiting your mobility and flexibility, while others suffer more acute symptoms such as shooting pains or a burning sensation.

Most lombalgie commune is caused by damaged muscles, ligaments and tendons that support the spine, or by muscles that are simply not strong enough. 

Increasing numbers of young people are now affected by back pain due to a sedentary lifestyle which, coupled with a lack of regular exercise, means that muscles become too weak to support normal spinal function. 

Poor posture is cited as an aggravating factor, particularly as most of us sit down for work and for the majority of our leisure activities. 

Patients often talk about a faux mouvement (awkward movement) triggering the pain, but in reality it can be an everyday movement or gesture that would have been fine with enough muscular support.

How to manage it

Your instinct might be to stay in bed and hope that it eases, but Ameli says “if you don't move, you’ll rust up”, urging you to keep moving, albeit carefully. 

It offers a free smartphone app, Activ’Dos, which includes motivating quizzes, guides for good posture, a range of exercises and reminders to move and stretch.

Another French app, Doado, launched in 2022 and uses AI to offer more personalised support for sufferers. 

It poses questions and physical tests (the same as those performed by a physiotherapist), from which it produces an assessment, feedback, and a catalogue of customised programs. 

It may also suggest you visit a healthcare professional, and you will receive recommendations and advice, as well as a PDF assessment to provide to your doctor. 

It was created to reduce the number of people who seek medical help too late, or who mistakenly do things to aggravate their conditions.

If you consult your doctor, you may not be offered an X-ray, as there is no direct correlation between the mechanical condition of your vertebrae and the intensity of pain: you could be pain-free despite imperfections in your vertebrae or be in agony yet have no visible defect.

Treatments

Warm baths or heated pads plus non-prescription pain relief can help initially, along with gentle movement. 

If you do spend a lot of time seated, Ameli recommends taking a break every two hours to stretch, walk around and warm up your joints, as well as introducing regular exercise to strengthen your ligaments and muscles, such as walking, cycling, gardening and DIY.

If your back pain comes with bladder or bowel issues, numbness or any fever, seek medical advice immediately as it could be more serious.