A cohort study of sciatic pain and measures of internal spinal load in professional drivers

Abstract

In a prospective cohort study of professional drivers, measures of internal spinal load were better predictors of the occurrence of sciatic pain than the measures of daily vibration exposure established by the EU Directive (2002). Herniated lumbar disc, lumbar trauma and physical work load were also associated with sciatic pain.

Effects of sex, age, body height and body weight on spinal loads: Sensitivity analyses in a subject-specific trunk musculoskeletal model

“…Excessive spinal loads have been recognized as a risk factor of back pain (Bovenzi et al, 2015;Coenen et al, 2013;Marras et al, 1995) and disc degeneration (Adams et al, 2000;Rannou et al, 2004;Stokes and Iatridis, 2004). Thus, greater BWs that yield larger (BW normalized)…”

Measures of internal lumbar load in professional drivers – the use of a whole-body finite-element model for the evaluation of adverse health effects of multi-axis vibration

“…A further analysis was also carried out of the VIBRISKS data using the results from the present investigation (Bovenzi et al 2013. This provided an initial approach to epidemiological verification of the new proposals.…”

“…There was a significant trend of increasing occurrence of both 7-day and 12-month sciatic pain with the increase of S ed and R factor treated as continuous variables; such a trend was not observed for A(8) and VDV. (Bovenzi et al 2013) The results of the re-analysis showed that the measures of internal lumbar load calculated according to ISO/CD 2631-5 (S ed , R factor) were better predictors of the occurrence of sciatic pain than those of daily vibration exposure (A(8), VDV) established by the EU Directive on mechanical vibration. (Bovenzi et al 2013) However, there could be a simple alternative to R for the risk assessment of lifetime vibration exposure.…”

“…(Bovenzi et al 2013) The results of the re-analysis showed that the measures of internal lumbar load calculated according to ISO/CD 2631-5 (S ed , R factor) were better predictors of the occurrence of sciatic pain than those of daily vibration exposure (A(8), VDV) established by the EU Directive on mechanical vibration. (Bovenzi et al 2013) However, there could be a simple alternative to R for the risk assessment of lifetime vibration exposure. One could combine the factors with the greatest influence on R, namely 'acceleration' and 'lifetime exposure duration'.…”

“…(1) employ the FE models and risk assessment method according to DIN SPEC 45697 and ISO/CD 2631-5 (Model 1) for the prediction of internal spinal forces and for the calculation of risk values using vibration exposure data measured in the Italian part of the VIBRISKS study; (2) provide the risk values for a re-analysis of the epidemiological data to examine the association between risk values and sciatic pain (Bovenzi et al 2013 and other lower back symptoms );…”