Physical and Psychosocial Work-related Risk Factors Associated with Musculoskeletal Symptoms among Home Care Personnel

Abstract

The aim of this cross-sectional study was to investigate physical and psychosocial aspects of the work environment, sociodemographic data and certain lifestyle factors, and the relationship between these variables and complaints in the shoulder/neck and low back area among female home care personnel. A questionnaire was completed by 361 randomly selected women. Multiple logistic regression analyses were conducted to evaluate the importance of several exposure factors for complaints in the shoulder/neck and low back areas. The results of this study clearly indicate that 'standing in forward-bent and twisted postures' can be viewed as a risk factor for shoulder/neck pain. A combination of this physical exposure and 'no possibility of influencing the planning of work' gave an increase in odds ratio, indicating an interaction between these two exposure indices. However, this interaction was not found for low back pain. 'Standing in forward-bent and twisted postures', 'standing in awkward positions' and whether the subject had children staying at home were significantly correlated to complaints about the low back. In fact, the latter factor decreased the risk of having complaints. The results indicated that certain physical and psychosocial work risk factors could influence shoulder/neck and low back pain.

Stress monitoring of ambulance personnel during work and leisure time

“…Worry about work conditions was assessed by ten questions on worry about different work conditions that were taken from a study conducted on home care personnel (Brulin et al 1998) and adapted to ambulance personnel. These questions addressed worry about physical and psychological factors as well as medical competence.…”

Musculoskeletal complaints among nurses related to patient handling tasks and psychosocial factors – Based on logbook registrations

“…The etiology of low back pain (LBP) and neck/shoulder pain (NSP) is multifactorial (Brulin et al, 1998;Burdorf and Sorock, 1997;Linton, 2001;Malchaire et al, 2001). Psychosocial factors like low job satisfaction and lack of social support have been found related to LBP and NSP among nurses (Lagerstrom et al, 1998;Smedley et al, 2003;Yip, 2001) and physical load like patient handling tasks have been associated with LBP, NSP (Engels et al, 1994b;Hignett, 1996b;Hui et al, 2001;Lagerstrom et al, 1998;Smedley et al, 1998;Yip, 2001), as well as knee pain (KP) (Menzel et al, 2004).…”

“…heart rate, movements or muscle activity by use of electromyography measurements (EMG), lumbar motion monitor and calculated lumbar compression forces/shear forces (Marras et al, 1999(Marras et al, , 2005Nuikka et al, 2001;Schibye et al, 2003), observations (e.g. OWAS, REBA, PEO) (Engels et al, 1994a;Hignett, 1996a;Hignett and McAtamney, 2000) or by retrospective self-reported questionnaires (Ando et al, 2000;Brulin et al, 1998;Hui et al, 2001;Smedley et al, 1995;Trinkoff et al, 2003;Yip, 2001). Estimations of load, posture or activities are often based upon questions about the average working day or a defined working period (Eriksen et al, 2004;Maul et al, 2003;Smedley et al, 2003).…”

Psychosocial Predictors for Shoulder/Neck and Low Back Complaints among Home Care Personnel

“…The physical work environment was assessed by means of indices that were found to be associated with shoulder neck and low back complaints in a previous study (17). These indices were ''lifting in awkward positions'' and ''standing in awkward postures''.…”