Manual handling of patients: clinical evaluation of some parameters clinical-anamnestic in health care

Abstract

SummaryBackground: the necessity to help hospitalized subjects with reduced or absent walking abilities exposes the workers to the risk of lesions, above all spinal lesions. It is essential therefore to reduce the risk through the introduction of correct procedures and devices as well as health surveillance and training. The Mapo index is a synthetic index to estimate the manual handling of patients assessment and it allows to give a quantitative valuation of risk level of health workers. Objectives: to assess the incidence of musculoskeletal disorders of the spinal in subjects exposed to different risk classes, correlating it with the MAPO index. Methods: we identified 53 male subjects more exposed and 26 male subjects less exposed and also 72 female subjects more exposed and 36 female subjects less exposed. These groups were made comparable as for age, working seniority, BMI and sport activities. The classification for spondyloarthropathies (SAP) indicated by the SIMLII Guidelines for the prevention of disorders and musculoskeletal diseases of the spine by manual handling of loads was carried out. The statistical analysis of data was based on the calculation of the mean, standard deviation, distribution, frequency, and range according to the single variables. The differences between averages were compared using Student T-test for continuous data and χ²-test for dichotomous data. Results: the results we obtained by comparing mean and standard deviation, gave p > 0.05. The comparison made through the χ²-test showed no significance because the p was always > 0.05. In the end, the analyzed data showed no statistically significant correlation between musculoskeletal diseases and the classification of workers in the relative risk class. Discussion and Conclusions: in our research the MAPO index did not turn out to be an exposure index correlated to a specific disease, because the workers at higher risk of band, compared to the workers at lower risk, use probably more correct procedures concerning the handling of hospitalized patients, conversely it can be supposed that there are less severe procedures and less compliance for the category of workers at lower risk.