Prevalence of low back pain in Port of Santos workers

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: Low back pain is a common symptom among the general population and among manual workers, contributing to high rates of absenteeism and a decrease in overall quality of life. OBJECTIVES: To determine the prevalence of low back pain in Port of Santos workers, its influence on overall quality of life, physical activity level, and associated absenteeism rate. METHODS: This cross-sectional prevalence study was based on prospective data collection. RESULTS: Eighty-two port workers were interviewed, 97.6% were male, and mean age was 42.9 years. Ethnically, 37.8% reported being brown. Most had completed high school. Longshoreman was the most common occupation, followed by foreman, tallyman, and others. A 44-hour workweek was the most frequent (31.3%), and over 85% of workers reported not working overtime. Most of them were not paid on a production basis. Formal employment, according to Brazilian Labor Law, was 70.7%, and union membership was 64.6%. The mean time working at the port was 11.9 years (standard deviation ± 12.5). Occupational low back pain was reported by 17% of respondents, leading to an absenteeism rate of 19.7%. Physical activities helped improve the feeling of vitality for work performance. CONCLUSIONS: The prevalence of low back pain among respondents was 17%, not influencing their quality of life, with an absenteeism rate of 19.7%. Doing physical activities was common among respondents.

An Occupational Health Survey for Port Employees in Shenzhen and A Dataset Management System based on R

“…Descriptive analysis was used to demonstrate basic characteristic of survey data in this study, among these participants, the jobs require a lot of physical labor only accounted for 11.9%~26.4%, which indicated that with equipment upgrading, numerous intelligent equipment and machines have replaced the simple, repetitive and strenuous physical jobs in the port, which reduces the physical dependence to a certain extent. Although the manual labor level has decreased, the level of mental labor has increased, therefore, the occupational stress and health problems according to mechanical vibration and noise, prolonged working posture and concentration, and other occupational hazards may gradually be more obvious 19 . The occupational disease spectrum of port employees may change because of the change of working practices, this change suggests that we should cause our attention Analysis result indicates that missing data were mainly concentrated in the physical examination dataset, such as motor and neurological function examination items, because these items were fill in the results by professional physicians after examining and diagnosing, if the result is normal (negative), leaving the item blank by default, and if the result is abnormal, the item will be fill in.…”

Peculiarities of the occupational diseases development and dynamics under the influence of dust, physical and chemical factors in Ukraine in 2011–2021

“…У загальній популяції порівняно з професійними групами хворих було встановлено, що в обох групах дослідження у 25 % обстежених первинний біль у спині трансформувався в хронічний БНС. Наукові дослідження довели, що серед основних причин ризику розвитку первинного болю в спині посідає значна кількість фізичних (у тому числі виробничих) та психосоціальних факторів [12].…”

“…In a meta-analysis performed according to Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses, which included patients older than 18 years in 41 cohort studies, and researched risk factors for the development of LBP (lower back pain), which is the main manifestation of radiculopathy, in the general population compared to professional groups of patients, it was established that in both groups in 25 % of the examined primary back pain transformed into chronic LBP. Scientific research proved that among basic risk factors for the development of primary back pain, a significant number of physical (including industrial) and psychosocial factors was determined [12].…”