Neck and shoulder symptoms among men in machine operating, dynamic physical work and sedentary work.

Abstract

TaLA S, RIIHIMAK I H , VIDEMAN T , VIIKARl-JUNTURA E, HANNINEN K. Neck and sho ulde r symptoms among men in ma chine operating, dynami c ph ysical work and sedenta ry work . Scand J Work En viron Health 14 (1988) 299-305. Data on the occurrence of neck and sho ulder symptoms and some qualities of work and leisure-time activities were gathered with a postal questionna ire sent to I 174 machine operators, I 045 ca rpenters, and I 013 office worker s. They were all men in the age ra nge of 25-49 years. The respon se rate was 67-76 fllo. The lifetime cumulative incidence of neck and sho ulder symptoms was 81 fllo for the machine oper ators, 73 fllo for the car pent ers, an d 57 fllo for the office wor kers. About half of the two gro ups of man ual work ers and 24 fllo of th e office wor kers had had symptoms dur ing th e last 7 d. Pain in the arm s was indicated by 14-17 fJ70 of the manual work ers and 4 fllo of th e offi ce workers . Symptoms during more than 30 d within the last 12 months were also more common among the manual workers than among the office wo rkers. Within the manual worker gro ups, the machine operators had more symptoms than the carpenters. In a mult ivariate logistic regression an alysis occup ation, workin g in twisted or bent posture s, age, draft, and job satisfaction pro ved to be significant risk indicators for neck and shoulder sympto ms.

Musculoskeletal complaints in the Netherlands in relation to age, gender and physically demanding work

“…These ®ndings are consistent with those found in other studies among employees in the Netherlands [2,14,37] and abroad [22,33]. For several complaints, a¯attening or even decrease in PRs was observed in the older age groups.…”

Psychosocial factors at work and musculoskeletal disease.

“…Social cla ss was not sign ificantly related to neck and shoulder sy mptoms after adj ustment for phy sica l demands (53) . After adju stm ent for several confounders, including bent and twi sted posture, low education was po siti vely related to the pre valen ce of neck and shoulder symptoms (54) . Ho we ver in the longitudinal studies no clear relation ship between low education (at childhood and later on) and symptoms in middle age was establi shed (38,39).…”

“…lob dissati sfaction was cross-sectionally rel ated with physical findings of neck and shoulder trouble after adjustment for confounders (54). Thi s relationship was also true for shoulder pain in women, but not in men (55), This vari able did not however predict neck or shoulder sy mptoms one yea r later (39).…”

Validity of a self-completed questionnaire measuring the physical demands of work

“…Physical occupational exposures that might be associated with such symptoms have typically been classified indirectly using job titles (6)(7)(8). However, it is recognized that job title alone will poorly define a person's occupational exposures (9-ll), and it does not allow conclusions to be drawn about the quality and quantity of physical work load (12).…”