Are workers who leave a job exposed to similar physical demands as workers who develop clinically meaningful declines in low-back function

Details

• Personal Author:
  Ferguson SA ; Lavender SA ; Marras WS ; Splittstoesser RE ; Yang G
• Description:
  Objective: The objective is to quantify differences in physical exposures for those who stayed on a job (survivor) versus those who left the job (turnover). Background: It has been suggested that high physical job demands lead to greater turnover and that turnover rates may supplement low back disorder incidence rates in passive surveillance systems. Method: A prospective study with 811 participants was conducted. The physical exposure of distribution center work was quantified using a moment monitor. A total of 68 quantitative physical exposure measures in three categories (load, position, and timing) were examined. Low back health function was quantified using the lumbar motion monitor at baseline and 6-month follow-up. Results: There were 365 turnover employees within the 6-month follow-up period and 446 "survivors" who remained on the same job, of which 126 survivors had a clinically meaningful decline in low back functional performance (cases) and 320 survivors did not have a meaningful decline in low back functional performance (noncases). Of the job exposure measures, 6% were significantly different between turnover and cases compared to 69% between turnover and noncases. Turnover employees had significantly greater exposure compared to noncases. Conclusion: Turnover employees had similar physical job exposures to workers who remained on the job and had a clinically meaningful decline in low back functional performance. Thus, ergonomists and HR should be aware that high turnover jobs appear to have similar physical exposure as those jobs that put workers at risk for a decline in low back functional performance. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Men Musculoskeletal Diseases Musculoskeletal System Occupational Health Risk Assessment Risk Factors Safety Women
• Keywords:
  Author Keywords: Employee Turnover Back-injuries Exposure-levels Humans Injuries Low Back Injury Models Musculoskeletal-system Musculoskeletal-system-disorders Risk-factors Statistical-analysis Warehousing

  More +
• ISSN:
  0018-7208
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Cooperative Agreement
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  Ohio ; OSHA Region 5
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  58-72
• Volume:
  56
• Issue:
  1
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20042902
• Citation:
  Hum Factors 2014 Feb; 56(1):58-72
• Contact Point Address:
  Sue A. Ferguson, The Ohio State University, Integrated Systems Engineering, Biodynamics Laboratory, 1971 Neil Avenue, 210 Baker Systems, Columbus, OH 43210
• Email:
  Ferguson.4@osu.edu
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2014
• Performing Organization:
  The Ohio State University
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Start Date:
  20000930
• Source Full Name:
  Human Factors
• End Date:
  20060929
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:f2bea0e7a04a73a95a3dc5caa04d617d5d0eb95e24e35d994fa9be40d0eb1508c0f6b9618b330a959565e090c626b228f124aa900d9f26942c3daf0ac0cbae2f
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/194971/cdc_194971_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 486.43 KB ]