Back and neck problems driving major UK health crisis, say medical leaders

Exclusive: Obesity and remote working among causes of surge in cases, as official data shows almost a million cannot work

• ‘You’re on your own’: the misery of being out of work with back pain

Britain is facing a major health crisis fuelled by a surge in back and neck problems, medical leaders have warned, caused by an increasingly sedentary, obese and ageing population and the rise in remote working.

Almost a million people in the UK are too sick to work because of back or neck ailments, according to official data, which threatens to derail ministers’ efforts to expand the workforce and grow the economy.