NIOSHTIC-2 Publications Search

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

Garg A; Kapellusch JM; Hegmann KT; Moore JS; Boda S; Bhoyar P; Thiese M; Merryweather A; Deckow-Schaefer G; Bloswick D; Malloy EJ

Hum Factors 2014 Feb; 56(1):44-57

https://doi.org/10.1177/0018720813491284

20042906

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.

Back-injuries; Risk-factors; Musculoskeletal-system; Musculoskeletal-system-disorders; Physiological-stress; Physiology; Physical-stress; Physical-reactions; Physical-capacity; Workers; Demographic-characteristics; Humans; Men; Women; Exposure-levels; Statistical-analysis; Age-groups; Body-weight; Author Keywords: epidemiology; ergonomics; occupational cohort; job analysis; risk assessment

Arun Garg, Industrial & Manufacturing Engineering, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, P.O. Box 784, Milwaukee, WI 53201

HUFAA6

20140201

Journal Article

arun@uwm.edu

Cooperative Agreement; Grant

2014

Cooperative-Agreement-Number-U01-OH-008083; Grant-Number-T42-CCT-810426; Grant-Number-T42-OH-008414; B20130805

1

0018-7208

Human Factors

WI; UT; TX; DC

University of Wisconsin Milwaukee