Back pain among workers in the United States: national estimates and workers at high risk

Details

• Personal Author:
  Behrens VJ ; Cameron, Lorraine L. ; Ger J ; Guo R ; Putz-Anderson, Vernon ; Seligman, Paul J. ; Tanaka, Shiro ; Wild, Deanna K.
• Description:
  The incidence of back pain in the United States was estimated using data obtained from the Occupational Health Supplement to the 1988 National Health Interview Survey. Of the 30,074 workers examined in the survey, 17.6% were identified as back pain cases by responding positively to a question about having back pain every day for a week or more in the past 12 months. A total of 149.1 million workdays were estimated to have been lost during a 1 year period due to these cases. A significantly higher percentage of males between the ages of 35 and 44 were back pain cases compared with females in that age group. The highest prevalence of back pain cases for both sexes was seen in the racial group of Aleut, Eskimo, or American Indian. In addition, white workers demonstrated a higher prevalence of cases compared with black workers. The lower back was the site most frequently identified as causing the pain and over 75% of the cases attributed their back pain to the performance of activities. Sixty five percent of the cases of back pain were attributable to occupational activities. Construction laborer was the highest risk major occupation for work related back pain for male workers, while the largest number of cases was seen among carpenters. Among female workers, nursing aides, orderlies, and attendants was the highest risk occupation as well as the one containing the largest number of cases. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Age Factors Construction Industry Epidemiology Health Personnel Morbidity Musculoskeletal Diseases Occupational Exposure Occupational Health Race Factors Safety
• Keywords:
  Age-factors Author Keywords: Back Pain Automobile Mechanics Back-injuries Carpenter Construction Construction-workers Hairdresser Health-care-personnel Industry Janitor Lost-work-days Maid Morbidity-rates NIOSH-Author Nursing Occupation Occupational-exposure Racial-factors

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• ISSN:
  0271-3586
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  Ohio ; OSHA Region 5
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  DSHEFS - Division of Surveillance, Hazard Evaluations, and Field Studies ; DBBS - Division of Biomedical and Behavioral Sciences
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Volume:
  28
• Issue:
  5
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:00229790
• Citation:
  Am J Ind Med 1995 Nov; 28(5):591-602
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  1996
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Source Full Name:
  American Journal of Industrial Medicine
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:10ccc53648b75b85906e12e9718707c248817e6053327af01259d08cd8ee04bc17d1319ea4a51b32e95c4f1257e8aaba132c9ec82f8974731ab7e9dc8d180ee8
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/204222/cdc_204222_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 851.38 KB ]