CANBERRA, Dec. 16 (Xinhua) -- Australian researchers at the George Institute for International Health said on Tuesday that they had found about a quarter of the Australian population suffers from back pain.

    And they said a more holistic approach is needed to alleviate the most common back ailment and curb high rates of recurrence.

    "We tend to treat the pain when it's there, but when you recover, patients rarely take steps to prevent the problem from returning," says Professor Chris Maher, director of musculoskeletal research at The George Institute in Sydney.

    "People understand the message about lifting correctly but heavy lifting is only one of the risk factors for developing back pain," Australian Associated Press quoted him as saying.

    Maher said Australians need to view their spine in the same way they view their heart - and take a preventative approach rather than relying on treatment once an injury occurred.

    Regular exercise to strengthen muscles in the back was key, he said.

    The institute tracked more than 350 patients receiving treatment for back pain. They were followed over one year and contacted at six weeks, three months and 12 months.

    Maher said the research showed one-in-four would go on to suffer a recurrence of back pain within a year.

    "This explains why around 25 percent of the Australian population suffers from back pain at any one time," he said.

    Lower back pain is the most prevalent and costly musculoskeletal condition in Australia, estimated to cost up to 1 billion Aust dollars (670 million U.S. dollars) annually with indirect costs exceeding 8 billion Australian dollars (5.3 billion U.S. dollars). It is also the most common health condition causing older Australians to be absent from the labor force.