Recently a preponderance of research has proven that these standard back schools are not effective in treating back pain. For example a study in Quebec randomized hundreds of persons to back school vs. placebo. Data showed that the back school group did learn more, and they did exercises more than the others, but they had no improvement in back pain or work disability. There is less data on prevention back schools, but it also is fairly negative. Although the current study showed, it also is not strongly favorable towards back school.
Some back pain is inevitable.
The genetic research suggests that spine degeneration correlates with genes more than with work exposure. Some back pain is not caused by bad body positioning. Falls, motor vehicle accidents, and injuries which occur at home but impair work are not affected by advice on how to protect the back at work. Vehicular and other vibration cannot be corrected by body positioning. These areas certainly can be affected by ergonomic job design, however.