What Is Chronic Low Back Pain?

Summary

• Chronic low back pain is pain lasting 3 months or longer and is the leading cause of disability worldwide
• An estimated 80% of adults will experience significant low back pain in their lifetime — you are not alone
• A specific cause often cannot be identified, but this reflects the complexity of spinal pain — not that your pain is imaginary
• Appropriate exercise and evidence-based treatment have been shown to help many people improve
• This site provides information grounded in scientific evidence, written in plain language