A LISREL analysis of work-related risk factors and health complaints in the nursing profession

Abstract

Although a model that simultaneously describes more dependent variables appears to provide a better approximation of the complexity of the actual relationship between work-related factors and health effects, the models in which only one health outcome is studied seem to give a proper description of the data at hand. This is an important finding because these single health outcome models resemble the usual analysis strategy by means of standard regression analysis. The adapted version of the full model suggests that musculoskeletal complaints of nurses can partly be understood as non-specific health complaints.

Effectiveness of overhead lifting devices in reducing the risk of injury to care staff in extended care facilities

“…There is a relationship between manual patient handling and discomfort to certain parts of the body, such as the lower back (Stubbs et al 1983;Harber et al 1985;Cato et al 1989;French et al 1997;Engels et al 1998;Josephson et al 1998;Engst et al 2004). In this analysis, the use of ceiling lifts to lift and transfer residents was found to significantly reduce the perceived risk of injury and discomfort to the neck, shoulders, upper and lower back, and arms/hands for care staff.…”

Reducing musculoskeletal burden through ergonomic program implementation in a large newspaper

“…Within the cohort, the combination of successive data reduction steps and sophisticated structural modeling advocated by other occupational health researchers (Engels et al 1998;Amick et al 1999), permitted analyses according to an evaluation based theory of change, within a longitudinal intervention evaluation design (Kompier 2002). We were able to track combined effects of RSI training and workstation assessment activities with changes in equipment and job tasks.…”

A comparison of approaches to modeling the relationship between ergonomic exposures and upper extremity disorders

“…Among professionals caring for the elderly, musculoskeletal symptoms were related to physical load, although also evidence was found for a mediating effect of psychological stress symptoms [Elovainio and Sinervo, 1997]. In a recent study of nurses, by far the strongest relation was found between working postures and musculoskeletal complaints [Engels et al, 1998]. Again, a variable partly based on questions as to work pace and time pressure appeared to have an effect on psychosomatic complaints but was not related to musculoskeletal symptoms.…”

“…Again, a variable partly based on questions as to work pace and time pressure appeared to have an effect on psychosomatic complaints but was not related to musculoskeletal symptoms. In each of these three studies, work demands were related to a single latent variable for musculoskeletal symptoms, representing problems in the back and upper extremity, as well as the lower extremity in two studies [Engels et al, 1998;Van der Beek et al, 1994]. In contrast, the analyses reported here included four latent variables, each of which represented a separate region of the upper extremity.…”

“…However, LISREL modeling is still rather exceptional in epidemiologic studies on musculoskeletal disorders. To our knowledge, it has only been used in three studies of the relation between work demands and musculoskeletal health effects [Elovainio and Sinervo, 1997;Engels et al, 1998;van der Beek et al, 1994]. The capability of LISREL to examine complex relationships between many causal factors and health effects might be advantageous to epidemiologic studies of musculoskeletal disorders, since these are understood to be multifactorial.…”