Work environment and low back pain: the influence of occupational activities.

Abstract

Objectives-To find associations between the prevalence of low back pain and occupational activities. Methods-Interviews of a random sample of 5185 19-59 year old Danish employees analysed by logistic regression. Results-Increased risks of low back pain were found for "vibration affecting the whole body" (odds ratio (OR)=1.28), "physically hard work" (OR=1.28), "frequently twisting or bending" (OR=1.71), "standing up" (OR=1.20), and "concentration demands" (OR=1.28). In the analysis of dose-response relations between low back pain and the risk factors, the one year period prevalence increased with increasing exposure time during a working day to each of the risk factors. The prevalence proportion ratio for those reporting to be exposed for most of the working time were 1.30 for vibrations affecting the whole body, 1.54 for physically hard work, 1.48 for frequently twisting or bending, 1.29 for standing up, and 1.13 for concentration demands. These associations seemed to be stronger in the subset of subjects who worked for 37 hours or more per week. The main objectives of this study were: (a) to identify occupational activities associated with low back pain; (b) to measure the risks of low back pain for different individual activities and explore some possible dose-response relations. MethodsThis study was based on reanalysis of a Danish survey among Danish employees. The survey was a nationwide cross sectional survey conducted from October to December 1990. A random sample of 9700 18-59 year old people was drawn from the Danish population and 8664 of them (response rate 89.3%) agreed to be interviewed. The data were collected by telephone interview with a structured questionnaire. Of the respondents 5940 people were employed at the time of the interview or had been employed up to two months before. These respondents were interviewed in detail about working conditions.A total of 15 variables have been analysed in this paper including age, sex, educational level, duration of employment in a specific occupation, weekly work time, status of exposure to certain occupational activities, and symptoms of low back pain. Only those who had been employed in a specific occupation for at least one year were included in this study. Thus, the actual applied sample consisted of 5185 subjects with the same age, sex, and occupational distributions as in the Danish population. We have described this sample and the prevalences for low back pain in different occupational groups in an earlier published study.21Subjects with missing responses were excluded from the analyses of the corresponding variables.

Prevalence and impacts of low back pain among peasant farmers in South-West Nigeria

“…Prolonged bending was observed to constitute a major risk factor of low back pain among farmers. This agrees with the causes of low back pain reported by other authors [9,[30][31][32], who attributed low back pain to repeated strain on the back due to frequent bending at work. Low back pain is a major public health concern, because it interferes with, or completely prevents farmers from, performing their farming duties and adversely affects their sexual activity.…”

Reported Occupational Hazards and Illnesses among Hairdressers in Ibadan, SouthWest Nigeria

“…In Ibadan, hairdressing salons open from 8:00 h to 20:00h and most do not run shifts. Prolonged standing and long working hours in a physically demanding job are associated with low back pain 15,16 which was one of the most prevalent health problems in this study occurring in 19% of hairdressers. The study in Benin found a prevalence of 31%.…”

Trends in the Danish work environment in 1990-2000 and their associations with labor-force changes

“…The Study therefore contained three representative cross-sections of the working population and two cohorts, a 1990-1995-2000 cohort and a 1995-2000 cohort. The Study made possible cross-sectional studies dealing with the prevalence of health problems (5,6) or work environment (7) and follow-up studies relating the work environment to changes in health (8)(9)(10)(11) or changes in labor-market status (12). The Danish Work Environment Cohort Study has also been used to generate exposure matrices (13) and to provide a reference population in case-referent studies (14).…”