Biomechanical risk factors for carpal tunnel syndrome: a pooled study of 2474 workers

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 J ; Merlino L ; Rempel D ; Silverstein B ; Thiese MS
• Description:
  Background: Between 2001 and 2010, five research groups conducted coordinated prospective studies of carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) incidence among US workers from various industries and collected detailed subject-level exposure information with follow-up of symptoms, electrophysiological measures and job changes. Objective: This analysis examined the associations between workplace biomechanical factors and incidence of dominant-hand CTS, adjusting for personal risk factors. Methods 2474 participants, without CTS or possible polyneuropathy at enrolment, were followed up to 6.5 years (5102 person-years). Individual workplace exposure measures of the dominant hand were collected for each task and included force, repetition, duty cycle and posture. Task exposures were combined across the workweek using time-weighted averaging to estimate job-level exposures. CTS case-criteria were based on symptoms and results of electrophysiological testing. HRs were estimated using Cox proportional hazard models. Results: After adjustment for covariates, analyst (HR=2.17; 95% CI 1.38 to 3.43) and worker (HR=2.08; 95% CI 1.31 to 3.39) estimated peak hand force, forceful repetition rate (HR=1.84; 95% CI 1.19 to 2.86) and per cent time spent (eg, duty cycle) in forceful hand exertions (HR=2.05; 95% CI 1.34 to 3.15) were associated with increased risk of incident CTS. Associations were not observed between total hand repetition rate, per cent duration of all hand exertions, or wrist posture and incident CTS. Conclusions: In this prospective multicentre study of production and service workers, measures of exposure to forceful hand exertion were associated with incident CTS after controlling for important covariates. These findings may influence the design of workplace safety programmes for preventing work-related CTS. [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

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• Keywords:
  Age-groups Biomechanics Body-weight Carpal-tunnel-syndrome Demographic-characteristics Hand-injuries Humans Job-stress Musculoskeletal-system Musculoskeletal-system-disorders Psychophysiology Repetitive-work Risk-factors Statistical-analysis 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
• Pages in Document:
  33-41
• Volume:
  72
• Issue:
  1
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20045210
• Citation:
  Occup Environ Med 2015 Jan; 72(1):33-41
• Contact Point Address:
  Prof. David Rempel, 1301 South 46th Street, Bldg 163, Richmond, CA 94804, USA
• Email:
  david.rempel@ucsf.edu
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2015
• 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:e061c108bfd06fd99a11796abfe4ffa7544e37fe76dbcbb1f62586c2220cda7eec2e366411a0fa197f14d1577adf8ea25ee4f5962d4efeffb7e88e07c57fb098
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/200718/cdc_200718_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 522.07 KB ]