Even though anyone can have back pain, a number of factors increase your risk. They include:

Age: the first symptom of low back pain naturally happens between the ages of 30 and 40 and becomes more common with age.

Fitness level: back pain is more common among people who are not physically fit, weak back and abdominal muscles may not correctly support the spine. People who go out and exercise a lot after being immobile all week are predisposed to suffer painful back injuries than people who make reasonable physical activity a daily habit. Researches show that low-impact aerobic exercise is good for the discs that cushion the spine, the individual bones that make up the spine.

Diet: high in calories and fat diet together with an inactive lifestyle, can lead to obesity, which can put stress on the back.

Heredity: certain causes of back pain, counting disc disease, may have a genetic factor.

Race: can be a factor in back problems as ell. For instance African American women are two to three times more likely than white women to develop spondylolisthesis, a condition in which a vertebra of the lower spine, also called the lumbar spine, slips out of place.

The presence of other diseases: Many diseases can cause or contribute to back pain. These include various forms of arthritis, such as osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, and ankylosing spondylitis, and cancers elsewhere in the body that may spread to the spine.

Occupational risk factors: having a job that requires heavy lifting, pushing or pulling, particularly when this involves twisting or vibrating the spine, can lead to injury and back pain. On the contrary inactive job or a desk job may also lead to or contribute to pain, especially if you have poor posture or sit all day in an uncomfortable chair.

Cigarette smoking: though smoking may not directly cause back pain, it increases your risk of developing low back pain and low back pain with sciatica - back pain that radiates to the hip and/or leg due to pressure on a nerve. For instance, smoking may lead to pain by blocking your body’s ability to deliver nutrients to the discs of the lower back. Repeated coughing provoked by heavy smoking may also cause back pain. It is possible that smokers are just less physically fit or less healthy than nonsmokers, which increases the likelihood that they will develop back pain. Moreover, smoking can slow healing, prolonging pain for people who have had back injuries, back surgery, or broken bones.