Back or neck-pain-related disability of nursing staff in hospitals, nursing homes and home care in seven countries—results from the European NEXT-Study

Abstract

Background: Musculoskeletal disorders are a widespread affliction in the nursing profession. Back or neck-pain-related disability of nursing staff is mainly attributed to physical and psychosocial risk factors. Objectives: To investigate which-and to what extent-physical and psychosocial risk factors are associated with neck/ back-pain-related disability in nursing, and to assess the role of the type of health care institution (hospitals, nursing homes and home care institutions) within different countries in this problem. Design: Cross-sectional secondary analysis of multinational data of nurses and auxiliary staff in hospitals (n ¼ 16,770), nursing homes (n ¼ 2140) and home care institutions (n ¼ 2606) in seven countries from the European NEXT-Study. Methods: Multinomial logistic regression analysis with raw models for each factor and mutually adjusted with all analysed variables. Results: Analysis of the pooled data revealed effort-reward imbalance as the predominant risk factor for disability in all settings (odds ratios for high disability by effort-reward ratio: hospital 5. 05 [4.30-5.93]; nursing home 6.52 [4.04-10.52] and home care 6. 4 [3.83-10.70] [after mutual adjustment of psychosocial and physical risk factors]). In contrast, physical exposure to lifting and bending showed only limited associations with odds ratios below 1.6; the availability and use of lifting aids was-after mutual adjustment-not or only marginally associated with disability. These findings were basically confirmed in separate analyses for all seven countries and types of institutions. Conclusions: The findings show a pronounced association between psychosocial factors and back or neck-pain-related disability. Further research should consider psychosocial factors and should take the setting where nurses work into account. r

Health-related quality of life and working conditions among nursing providers

“…Some studies have investigated the relationship of these stressors with health condition, 12,15 mental health, 4 coronary disease, 12,17 and symptoms, signs or disability arising from musculoskeletal problems. 9,10,22 In recent years special attention has been paid to nurses' health. These providers are usually subject to different physical loads determined by psychosocial stressors such as close attention, lack of understanding of the tasks, fast task performance, repetitive and fragmented tasks, low social support, lack of recognition and reward, high emotional demands, night work and lack of job security.…”

Personal service assistance: Musculoskeletal disorders and injuries in consumer‐directed home care

“…Similarly, Kim and colleagues found a modest increase in risk (OR=1.14; CI=1.08-1.19) for physical demands among PAS providers (Kim et al, 2010). Other studies of care providers have also found challenges in identifying the role of physical risk factors in WRMSDs or related disability (Ando et al, 2000;Simon et al, 2008), or determining the most problematic physical risk factor in home care (Cheung et al, 2006;Ono et al, 1995). Most of these studies, like ours, were self report surveys, and lacked validation from medical or disability records, which may lead to misclassification of cases or imprecision of the models.…”

Safety risks associated with physical interactions between patients and caregivers during treatment and care delivery in Home Care settings: A systematic review

“…The permanent physical environment issues included cramped conditions (strong evidence: Hale & Piggot, 2005;moderate evidence: Craven et al, 2012;Kalman & Andersson, 2014;Markkanen et al, 2007;Munck et al, 2011;Quinn et al, 2009;Skoglind-Ohman & Kjellberg, 2011;Swedberg et al, 2013), poor lighting (moderate evidence : Beer et al, 2014;Leiss, 2012;Munck et al, 2011), poor access to stairs (moderate evidence: Kim et al, 2010) and unsafe flooring (limited evidence: Conneeley, 1998). There are also less permanent risk factors associated with clutter and obstacles (moderate evidence : Beer et al, 2014;Leiss, 2012;Markkanen et al, 2007;Quinn et al, 2009;Skoglind-Ohman & Kjellberg, 2011) and awkward working positions for clinical, IT and writing tasks (strong evidence: Cheung et al, 2006;Dellve et al, 2003;Ono et al, 1995;Brulin et al, 2001; moderate evidence: Kim et al, 2010;Munck et al, 2011;Pohjonen et al, 1998;Quinn et al, 2009;Simon et al, 2008).…”

“…Evidence was found that identified physical risks associated with inadequate and missing equipment, e.g. lifting or bathing equipment which was the incorrect size and/or weight capacity for the patient (strong evidence: Hale & Piggot, 2005;moderate evidence: Craven et al, 2012;Faucett et al, 2013;Leiss, 2012;Pohjonen et al, 1998;Simon et al, 2008;Sims-Gould et al, 2013) and a lack of support for maintenance and training in medical devices (moderate evidence: Munck et al, 2011).…”

“…One of the challenges to providing care and treatment at the patient's home is the safety and risk of injury to caregivers and patients when care is delivered by staff working alone (HSE, 2009) or as part of a team (Simon et al, 2008). This could be within one organisation (Markkanen et al, 2007), interagency working (Miller and Cameron, 2011) or student supervision (Leh, 2011).…”