The NIOSH lifting equation and low-back pain, part 2: association with seeking care in the Backworks prospective cohort study

Details

• Personal Author:
  Bhoyar P ; Bloswick D ; Boda S ; Deckow-Schaefer G ; Garg, Arun ; Hegmann KT ; Kapellusch JM ; Malloy EJ ; Merryweather A ; Moore, J. Steven ; Thiese, Matt
• Description:
  Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between the revised NIOSH lifting equation (RNLE) and risk of seeking care for low-back pain (SC-LBP). Background: The RNLE is commonly used to quantify low-back physical stressors from lifting/lowering of loads in workplaces. There is no prospective study on relationship between RNLE and SC-LBP. Method: A cohort of 258 incident-eligible workers from 30 diverse facilities was followed for up to 4.5 years. Job physical exposures were individually measured. Worker demographics, medical history, psychosocial factors, hobbies, and current low-back pain were obtained at baseline. The cohort was followed monthly to ascertain SC-LBP and quarterly to determine changes in physical exposure. Associations between SC-LBP and both the peak lifting index (PLI) and peak composite lifting index (PCLI) were tested in multivariate models using proportional hazards regression. Results: SC-LBP lifetime prevalence at baseline was 31.9%, and there were 24 incident cases during follow-up. Factors predicting SC-LBP included job physical exposure (PLI and PCLI), history of low-back pain, age, female gender, and lower body mass index. In adjusted models, risk (hazard ratio [HR]) increased per unit increase in PLI and PCLI (p = .03 and .02, and maximum HR = 23.0 and 21.9, respectively). Whereas PCLI suggested a continuous increase in risk with an increase in PCLI, the PLI showed elevated, though somewhat reduced, risk at higher exposures (HR = 14.9 at PLI = 6). Conclusion: Job physical stressors are associated with increased risk of SC-LBP. Data suggest that both the PLI and PCLI are useful metrics for estimating exposure to job physical stressors. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Aging Body Weight Demography Men Musculoskeletal Diseases Musculoskeletal System Occupational Health Risk Assessment Risk Factors Safety Women

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• Keywords:
  Age-groups Author Keywords: Epidemiology Back-injuries Body-weight Demographic-characteristics Ergonomics Exposure-levels Humans Job Analysis Musculoskeletal-system Musculoskeletal-system-disorders Occupational Cohort Physical-capacity Physical-reactions Physical-stress Physiological-stress Physiology Risk-factors Risk Assessment Statistical-analysis Workers

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• ISSN:
  0018-7208
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Cooperative Agreement ; Grant
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  District of Columbia ; OSHA Region 3 ; OSHA Region 5 ; OSHA Region 6 ; OSHA Region 8 ; Texas ; Utah ; Wisconsin
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  44-57
• Volume:
  56
• Issue:
  1
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20042906
• Citation:
  Hum Factors 2014 Feb; 56(1):44-57
• Contact Point Address:
  Arun Garg, Industrial & Manufacturing Engineering, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, P.O. Box 784, Milwaukee, WI 53201
• Email:
  arun@uwm.edu
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2014
• Performing Organization:
  University of Wisconsin Milwaukee
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Start Date:
  20030930
• Source Full Name:
  Human Factors
• End Date:
  20070929
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:ed516c1ef146d0fc8abb997c269d20a50b0d84e7e3d47bf97d06adee01829721ab8c3cef4f9a635a54849c23952df34b566ef32692933a351f8362e859b2c13c
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/194975/cdc_194975_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 528.53 KB ]