Frequency of musculoskeletal symptoms among police officers: systematic review

Abstract

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Musculoskeletal symptoms are considered one of the major health problems among police officers. However, no study has synthesized the frequency of these disorders in different parts of the body in this population. The study aimed to describe the frequency of musculoskeletal symptoms in different body regions of the police officers. CONTENTS: A search was conducted in the electronic databases Pubmed/Medline, Web of Science, LILACS, and Scielo, as well as a manual search in the references of the articles. Ten of the 4025 possible studies found were included, which reported different types of musculoskeletal symptoms frequency in different body regions and periods. The frequency of musculoskeletal symptoms within 12 months ranged from 42-52% for the lower back, 34-43% for the knees, 7-32% for the shoulders, 7-27% for the wrists/hands/fingers, 29-42% for the neck, 18-28% for ankle/foot, 8-10% for elbow, 22-45% for upper back and 12-18% for hip/thigh. CONCLUSION: The frequency of musculoskeletal symptoms in police officers was high, especially in the lumbar, dorsal, knee, neck, and shoulder regions. Preventive measures such as physical activity and ergonomic adaptations to reduce these symptoms in this population are necessary.

Prevalence and Intensity of Non-Specific, Mechanical Low Back Pain in Security Guards and Traffic Wardens of Lahore

“…Pain can be mild, moderate, or severe, as well as focal/diffuse, acute, or chronic 8 . One of the most common health issues among police personnel is musculoskeletal pains 9 .…”

Conservative Interventions for Non-Specific Low Back Pain in Tactical Populations: A Systematic Review of Randomized Controlled Trials

“…Noting that, with the high prevalence of NSLBP in tactical personnel [14,18], there are no published guidelines for management of this condition in this population. As such, this review provides important findings regarding the efficacy, or lack thereof, for several types of interventions that are of use to guide current treatment and future research.…”

“…Not only is this form of load carriage known to cause LBP [12], but these injuries are often more severe than those at other bodily sites [13]. Given the load carriage requirements of tactical personnel, it is therefore not surprising that the lower back is a leading site of musculoskeletal injury in these populations [12,14,15]. The workforce impacts of load carriage injuries can be notable with research having identified a significantly greater proportion of absenteeism in police officers, for example, who regularly wore body armor (26%) compared to those who did not (17%) [16] and loads worn by U.S. soldiers deployed to Afghanistan predictive of the development of LBP during deployment [17].…”

Effectiveness of m-health-based core strengthening exercise and health education for public safety workers with non-specific chronic low back pain: study protocol for a superiority randomized controlled trial (SAFEBACK)

“…The CLBP prevalence in public safety workers (e.g., police officers and firefighters) ranges from 28.7 to 76.2% worldwide [6,7,8]. In Brazil, LBP is the main reason for sick leave in this population [9,10,11].…”