Personal and workplace psychosocial risk factors for carpal tunnel syndrome: a pooled study cohort

Details

• Personal Author:
  Bao S ; Burt, Susan E. ; Dale, Ann M. ; Eisen EA ; Evanoff B ; Garg, Arun ; Gerr F ; Harris-Adamson C ; Hegmann KT ; Kapellusch JM ; Merlino L ; Rempel D ; Silverstein B ; Thiese MS
• Description:
  Background: Between 2001 and 2010, six research groups conducted coordinated multiyear, prospective studies of carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) incidence in US workers from various industries and collected detailed subject-level exposure information with follow-up symptom, physical examination, electrophysiological measures and job changes. Objective: This analysis of the pooled cohort examined the incidence of dominant-hand CTS in relation to demographic characteristics and estimated associations with occupational psychosocial factors and years worked, adjusting for confounding by personal risk factors. Methods: 3515 participants, without baseline CTS, were followed-up to 7 years. Case criteria included symptoms and an electrodiagnostic study consistent with CTS. Adjusted HRs were estimated in Cox proportional hazard models. Workplace biomechanical factors were collected but not evaluated in this analysis. Results: Women were at elevated risk for CTS (HR=1.30; 95% CI 0.98 to 1.72), and the incidence of CTS increased linearly with both age and body mass index (BMI) over most of the observed range. High job strain increased risk (HR=1.86; 95% CI 1.11 to 3.14), and social support was protective (HR=0.54; 95% CI 0.31 to 0.95). There was an inverse relationship with years worked among recent hires with the highest incidence in the first 3.5 years of work (HR=3.08; 95% CI 1.55 to 6.12). Conclusions: Personal factors associated with an increased risk of developing CTS were BMI, age and being a woman. Workplace risk factors were high job strain, while social support was protective. The inverse relationship between CTS incidence and years worked among recent hires suggests the presence of a healthy worker survivor effect in the cohort. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Aging Biomechanical Phenomena Body Weight Demography Men Musculoskeletal Diseases Musculoskeletal System Nervous System Occupational Health Risk Assessment Risk Factors Safety Stress, Psychological Women Workload Workplace

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• Keywords:
  Age-groups Analytical-processes Biomechanics Body-weight Carpal-tunnel-syndrome Demographic-characteristics Exposure-levels Hand-injuries Humans Job-stress Models Musculoskeletal-system Musculoskeletal-system-disorders Psychophysiology Risk-factors Statistical-analysis Work-areas Work-capability Work-capacity Work-environment Workers

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• ISSN:
  1351-0711
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Grant
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  California ; Iowa ; Missouri ; Ohio ; OSHA Region 10 ; OSHA Region 5 ; OSHA Region 7 ; OSHA Region 8 ; OSHA Region 9 ; Utah ; Washington ; Wisconsin
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  DSHEFS - Division of Surveillance, Hazard Evaluations, and Field Studies
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Volume:
  70
• Issue:
  8
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20042614
• Citation:
  Occup Environ Med 2013 Aug; 70(8):529-537
• Contact Point Address:
  Dr. Carisa Harris-Adamson, Department of Physical Therapy, Samuel Merritt University, 450 30th Street, Suite 3708, Oakland, CA 94609
• Email:
  charrisadamson@samuelmerritt.edu
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2013
• NORA Priority Area:
  Manufacturing ; Services
• Performing Organization:
  University of California-San Francisco
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Start Date:
  20100901
• Source Full Name:
  Occupational and Environmental Medicine
• End Date:
  20140831
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:9d1576ab58d08a336499677973119ebe8ef999e818486da9addf32f2186f84b571b183c16417efea45be075a2123a51db081be371085cd5f793afd218a11e175
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/194784/cdc_194784_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 119.04 KB ]