Lumbar Supports and Education for the Prevention of Low Back Pain in Industry

Abstract

Context.-Low back pain is a frequent and costly health problem. Prevention of low back pain is important both for the individual patient and from an economic perspective. Objective.-To assess the efficacy of lumbar supports and education in the prevention of low back pain in industry. Design.-A randomized controlled trial with a factorial design. Setting.-The cargo department of an airline company in the Netherlands. Participants.-A total of 312 workers were randomized, of whom 282 were available for the 6-month follow-up. Interventions.-Subjects were randomly assigned to 4 groups: (1) education (lifting instructions) and lumbar support, (2) education, (3) lumbar support, and (4) no intervention. Education consisted of 3 group sessions on lifting techniques with a total duration of 5 hours. Lumbar supports were recommended to be used during working hours for 6 months. Main Outcome Measures.-Low back pain incidence and sick leave because of back pain during the 6-month intervention period. Results.-Compliance with wearing the lumbar support at least half the time was 43%. In the 282 subjects for whom data were available, no statistically significant differences in back pain incidence (48 [36%] of 134 with lumbar support vs 51 [34%] of 148 without, P = .81) or in sick leave because of low back pain (mean, 0.4 days per month with lumbar support vs 0.4 days without, P = .52) were found among the intervention groups. In a subgroup of subjects with low back pain at baseline, lumbar supports reduced the number of days with low back pain per month (median, 1.2 vs 6.5 days per month; P = .03). Conclusions.-Overall, lumbar supports or education did not lead to a reduction in low back pain incidence or sick leave. The results of the subgroup analysis need to be confirmed by future research. Based on our results, the use of education or lumbar supports cannot be recommended in the prevention of low back pain in industry.

A systematic review of the effectiveness of occupational health and safety training

“…Of most potential concern to this review would be unreported (non-significant, small) behavioral outcomes, since we had concluded the body of behavioral evidence was strong. There were three studies (32,55,58) that measured health outcomes, indicating that they had an adequate timeline in which to measure behaviors yet did not report them. However, only one of the studies (55) made it to the final evidence synthesis stage (table 2), but its non-academic style of reporting and research setting (food retail) render it likely that behaviors were actually not measured.…”

“…A second issue is apparent in the lack of knowledge and attitudes outcome data available to this review, relative to behaviors and health outcomes data -a surprising finding, given the typically greater ease of collecting knowledge and attitudes data. There were seven studies (33,40,49,51,58,65,66) that collected behavioral or health information pre-and postintervention by questionnaire. Some of these questionnaires could presumably have measured knowledge and attitudes too.…”

Prevalence of Back Pain and Associated Factors among Bank Staff in Selected Banks in Kigali, Rwanda: A Cross Sectional Study

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Knowledge as a common good

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