An Epidemiologic Study of Occupational Low Back Pain in Truck Drivers.

Abstract

The factors in volved in occupational low back pain occurring in professional drivers were investigated epidemiologically with questionnaires (92 items) including low back symptoms, personal factors and occupational factors. The responses of one hundred fifty-three of one hundred eighty-one truck drivers who work in a large chemical industry corporation were analyzed after they had completely filled in questionnaires. As analysis of the results shows, the prevalence of LBP in one month of the survey was 50.3%. Correlating among data of personal factors and LBP, the prevalence of LBP was significantly higher in the drivers (Odd's ratio of 2.7) who answered "yes" to the item "shortage of spending time with family than in the drivers who didnt answer "yes. The occupational factors, working load and working environment showed no correlation with the prevalence of LBP. In contrast, 3 items of the working format related significantly to the prevalence of LBP: "irregular duty time (Odd's ratio of 3.0), "short resting time (2.4), and "long driving time in a day (2.0). Eighty-one of the 153 drivers (52.9%) pointed out the relationship between LBP and work, especially work which muolves vibration or road shock. Our results and the results from previous published studies suggested that vibration is an obvious risk factor for LBP. From the viewpoint of prophylaxis, an improvement in working conditions reduces the incidence of drivers' LBP to some extent.

Association between sitting and occupational LBP

“…Four out of six studies showed a moderate positive association (average OR=2.1) between sitting and LBP [7,9,22,44]. The remaining two studies found an almost null association between professional driving and LBP [6,53].…”

“…However, almost half the OR's factored in were not significant, weakening the supposed effect of sitting [6,20,36,37,39,41,43,53,62,76].…”

“…Among the occupational exposures identified, sitting is commonly cited as a risk factor in the literature, in addition to heavy physical work, heavy or frequent lifting, non-neutral postures (i.e., trunk rotation, forward bending), pushing and pulling, and exposure to whole body vibration (WBV) (i.e., motor vehicle driving) [12,20,25,31,35,37,39,47,51,53,76,79].…”

Study of the Prevalence and Risk Factors for Low Back Pain in Truck Drivers in the State of São Paulo, Brazil

“…[1][2][3][4][5][6] Low back pain corresponds to over 50% of all musculoskeletal dysfunctions that cause chronic disabilities in industrialized countries, leading to expenses with treatments and absenteeism from work. 5,[7][8][9][10][11][12][13] Low back pain or lumbar pain runs between the lower ribs and the glutei and can be related to multiple causes such as neoplasias; inflammatory and infectious diseases; systemic bone alterations; congenital abnormalities; degenerative, visceral, and psychogenic diseases; traumas; and mechanical causes. 4,14 Occupational low back pain is related to the latter cause; the onset occurs while the individual is exerting occupational activities and therefore is related to certain working situations such as maintenance of the same posture for prolonged periods, repetitive movements, lifting of heavy objects, and tilting and torsion of the trunk.…”

“…4,14 Occupational low back pain is related to the latter cause; the onset occurs while the individual is exerting occupational activities and therefore is related to certain working situations such as maintenance of the same posture for prolonged periods, repetitive movements, lifting of heavy objects, and tilting and torsion of the trunk. 7,11,15,16 Moreover, not only can the exposure to risk factors lead to the onset of low back pain, but also the time of exposure to such factors can be a determinant of onset of low back pain.…”