Abstract:Associations of work activities requiring pinch or hand grip or exposure to hand-arm vibration with finger and wrist osteoarthritis: a meta-analysis by Hammer PEC, Shiri R, Kryger AI, Kirkeskov L, Bonde JPThe current meta-analysis provides limited support for the hypothesis that occupational activities involving pinch motion are causally linked to development of hand osteoarthritis. For exposure to hand grip or hand-arm vibration the evidence is insufficient due to inconsistent results
Affiliation
133Review S… Show more
Our umbrella review indicated that a narrow range of risk factors has been examined for rheumatic diseases. Current evidence strongly supports that smoking, obesity, alcohol consumption, knee injury, and work activities are associated with risk for at least one rheumatic disease.
Our umbrella review indicated that a narrow range of risk factors has been examined for rheumatic diseases. Current evidence strongly supports that smoking, obesity, alcohol consumption, knee injury, and work activities are associated with risk for at least one rheumatic disease.
“…Scientific papers and literature reviews on the development of health-related problems due to this exposure [7, 8, 13, 17–19] support its coverage.…”
BackgroundThe prevalence of workers with demanding physical working conditions in the European work force remains high, and occupational physical exposures are considered important risk factors for musculoskeletal disorders (MSD), a major burden for both workers and society. Exposures to physical workloads are therefore part of the European nationwide surveys to monitor working conditions and health. An interesting question is to what extent the same domains, dimensions and items referring to the physical workloads are covered in the surveys. The purpose of this paper is to determine 1) which domains and dimensions of the physical workloads are monitored in surveys at the national level and the EU level and 2) the degree of European consensus among these surveys regarding coverage of individual domains and dimensions.MethodItems on physical workloads used in one European wide/Spanish and five other European nationwide work environment surveys were classified into the domains and dimensions they cover, using a taxonomy agreed upon among all participating partners.ResultsThe taxonomy reveals that there is a modest overlap between the domains covered in the surveys, but when considering dimensions, the results indicate a lower agreement. The phrasing of items and answering categories differs between the surveys. Among the domains, the three domains covered by all surveys are “lifting, holding & carrying of loads/pushing & pulling of loads”, “awkward body postures” and “vibrations”. The three domains covered less well, that is only by three surveys or less, are “physical work effort”, “working sitting”, and “mixed exposure”.ConclusionsThis is the fırst thorough overview to evaluate the coverage of domains and dimensions of self-reported physical workloads in a selection of European nationwide surveys. We hope the overview will provide input to the revisions and updates of the individual countries’ surveys in order to enhance coverage of relevant domains and dimensions in all surveys and to increase the informational value of the surveys.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12889-017-4465-7) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
“…One domain of importance for education and intervention is the workplace. To date, numerous studies have examined the relationship of physically demanding occupations like farming, mining, and floor laying, as well as work activities like kneeling, squatting, and heavy lifting to the onset of OA .A synthesis of 69 studies from 23 countries yielded strong and moderate evidence for lifting, cumulative physical loads, full‐body vibration, and kneeling/squatting/bending as increasing the risks of developing osteoarthritis (OA) in men and women.Strong and moderate evidence existed for no increased risk of OA related to sitting, standing and walking (hip and knee OA), lifting and carrying (knee OA), climbing ladders (knee OA), driving (knee OA), and highly repetitive tasks (hand OA).Greater attention is needed to improve measures assessing employment activities and recall periods.A lack of consistency in dose‐response information makes synthesizing data problematic and hinders practical recommendations.…”
Section: Introductionmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…One domain of importance for education and intervention is the workplace. To date, numerous studies have examined the relationship of physically demanding occupations like farming, mining, and floor laying, as well as work activities like kneeling, squatting, and heavy lifting to the onset of OA (6)(7)(8)(9)(10)(11)(12)(13)(14)(15)(16).…”
Section: Introductionmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…Several excellent reviews of the literature have examined occu pational factors and OA (6)(7)(8)(9)(10)(11)(12)(14)(15)(16)27). Most have focused on knees or hips, with less attention to other joints, differences between men and women, and dose response data.…”
Objective
To systematically review the evidence for an increased risk of osteoarthritis in the hip, knee, hand, wrist, finger, ankle, foot, shoulder, neck, and spine related to diverse occupational activities of men and women and to examine dose‐response information related to the frequency, intensity, and duration of work exposures and the risk of osteoarthritis (OA).
Methods
Established guidelines for systematic reviews in occupational health and safety studies were followed. MEDLINE, Embase, CINAHL, and Cochrane Library were searched from inception to December 2017. Studies were reviewed for relevance, quality was appraised, and data were extracted and synthesized.
Results
Sixty‐nine studies from 23 countries yielded strong and moderate evidence for lifting, cumulative physical loads, full‐body vibration, and kneeling/squatting/bending as increasing the risks of developing OA in men and women. Strong and moderate evidence existed for no increased risk of OA related to sitting, standing, and walking (hip and knee OA), lifting and carrying (knee OA), climbing ladders (knee OA), driving (knee OA), and highly repetitive tasks (hand OA). Variability in dose‐response data resulted in an inability to synthesize these data.
Conclusion
Evidence points to the potential for OA occupational recommendations and practice considerations to be developed for women and men. However, research attention is needed to overcome deficits in the measurement and recall of specific work activities so that recommendations and practice considerations can provide the specificity needed to be adopted in workplaces.
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