Reports of work related musculoskeletal injury among home care service workers compared with nursery school workers and the general population of employed women in Sweden.

Abstract

OBJECTIVES--To describe the nationwide occurrence of work related musculoskeletal injuries among all home care service workers in Sweden, and to identify relative risks and risk factors of the injuries. METHODS--The study was based on work related injuries reported to the Swedish occupational injury information system in 1990-1. The work related musculoskeletal injuries were divided into overexertion accidents and musculoskeletal diseases. The incidence of the injuries in female home care service workers was compared with those in nursery school workers and all other employed women in Sweden. RESULTS--In home care service workers, the annual incidence of injury from overexertion accidents and musculoskeletal diseases were 19.2 and 15.1 per 1000 workers, respectively, which was higher than those in nursery school workers and all employed women in Sweden. For five injury locations including the back, all the age standardised relative risks (SRR) of overexertion accidents exceeded 4.0, and most of those for musculoskeletal diseases were 1.5 or more in home care service workers compared with all other employed women in Sweden. Total duration of sick leave due to overexertion accidents was 7.7 times, and musculoskeletal diseases 3.5 times, longer than in nursery school workers. National loss due to sick leave resulting from only musculoskeletal injuries in home care service workers was about 8.2% of the total work related sick leave in all employed women in Sweden, although the number of home care service workers represented only some 5% of this population. Lifting other people was most frequently reported as the main risk cause of overexertion accidents in both kinds of workers. CONCLUSIONS--The results support the hypothesis that home care service workers have higher annual injury incidence of musculoskeletal injuries than nursery school workers due to physically stressful tasks that are far less common in nursery school workers.

Employment After Liver Transplantation: A Review

“…Briefly, beginning in the 1990s, population-based studies from Scandinavia [10][11][12][13] have documented PAS-related occupational injury and disability. In the United States, the rate of MSDs among PAS workers exceeded that among construction, mining and manufacturing workers [14] .…”

“Making it work in the frontline” explains female home care workers’ defining, recognizing, communicating and reporting of occupational disorders

“…reported occupational injuries and reported work-related diseases and symptoms, are common among home care workers (HCWs), compared to other female human service occupations (Ono, Lagerströ m, Hagberg, Lindén & Malker, 1995). Musculoskeletal disorders are the most common registered occupational disorder among nursing personnel and HCWs (Ono et al, 1995;Meyer & Muntaner, 1999).…”

“…reported occupational injuries and reported work-related diseases and symptoms, are common among home care workers (HCWs), compared to other female human service occupations (Ono, Lagerströ m, Hagberg, Lindén & Malker, 1995). Musculoskeletal disorders are the most common registered occupational disorder among nursing personnel and HCWs (Ono et al, 1995;Meyer & Muntaner, 1999). Various organizational conditions in work, especially related to emotional and physical demands, contributes to work-related disorders and work injuries among HCWs (Johansson, 1995;Aronsson, Astvik & Thulin, 1998;Brulin et al, 1998;Engkvist, Hjelm, Hagberg, Menckel & Ekenvall, 2000;Dellve, Lagerströ m & Hagberg, 2003).…”

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.…”

“…With upwards of 44% of low back pain patients in the general working population reporting a recurrence within one year (Woolf & Pfleger, 2003), multiple episodes or chronicity among home care providers also needs to be considered. Although several studies have documented rates among home health nurses and aides, only a few have focused on paid PAS workers in the home (Kim et al, 2010;Meyer & Muntaner, 1999;Ono et al, 1995).…”