An Integrated Back Pain Assessment Framework based on Spine Biomechanics and Probabilistic Reasoning

Back pain is a critical problem for military air crews. As mission durations often exceed the original operational window for which the seating systems were designed, crews are susceptible to both acute and chronic discomfort and pain. Studies have shown that spinal loading and movement have a significant influence on pain. Other studies have linked back pain to anthropometric factors, work related factors, and health history. Yet our knowledge of how spine biomechanics and degenerative change affect or cause pain is limited. A better understanding of the relationship between spine pain and the biomechanical factors unique to military air crews is needed to inform the development of effective prevention and seat design strategies for back disorders. To address this critical challenge, the IAI team proposes to develop a novel framework for back pain assessment that will systematically model and analyze back pain by exploiting spine biomechanics and probabilistic reasoning. The envisioned end-product will be a pain assessment and seat design tool which integrates biomechanical simulation techniques, probabilistic modeling, experimental data, empirical studies, and optimization techniques to offer effective decision making in minimizing chronic back pain.