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Is hard physical work in the early working life associated with back pain later in life? A cross-sectional study among 5700 older workers.

ABSTRACT: Objectives: Physically demanding work increases the risk of developing musculoskeletal disorders during working life, with low back pain (LBP) as the most prevalent and debilitating musculoskeletal disorder worldwide. However, a lack of knowledge exists about the role of early working years on musculoskeletal health later in life. This study investigated whether an exposure-response association exists between physical demands in early working life and risk of LBP in later working life.

Design: Cross-sectional study.

Setting, participants and outcome measure: In the SeniorWorkingLife study, 5909 wage earners aged ?50 years with currently sedentary work replied to a questionnaire survey in 2018 about physical work demands during their first working years (exposure) and current LBP (outcome). Associations between physical work demands in the early working years and current LBP were modelled using general linear models controlling for various confounders, combined with model-assisted weights based on national registers.

Results: Hard physical work during early working life was associated with more intense LBP later in life among senior workers with currently sedentary jobs. In the fully adjusted model, workers with 'standing/walking work with lifting/carrying' and 'heavy or fast work that is physically strenuous' during the first years of working life reported higher LBP intensity than those with sedentary work during their first working years (0.2 (95% CI, 0.0 to 0.4) and 0.6 (95% CI, 0.4 to 0.9), respectively).

Conclusion: Work involving lifting/carrying or work that is physically strenuous in early life is associated with higher intensity of LBP among older workers with currently sedentary employment. These findings suggest that early working life may have an impact on later working years and underscore the necessity for careful introduction and instruction to the working environment for retaining musculoskeletal health and prolonging working life.

Trial registration number: NCT03634410.

SUBMITTER: Blafoss R

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7722822 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Is hard physical work in the early working life associated with back pain later in life? A cross-sectional study among 5700 older workers.

Bláfoss Rúni R Skovlund Sebastian Venge SV López-Bueno Rubén R Calatayud Joaquin J Sundstrup Emil E Andersen Lars L LL

BMJ open 20201207 12

<h4>Objectives</h4>Physically demanding work increases the risk of developing musculoskeletal disorders during working life, with low back pain (LBP) as the most prevalent and debilitating musculoskeletal disorder worldwide. However, a lack of knowledge exists about the role of early working years on musculoskeletal health later in life. This study investigated whether an exposure-response association exists between physical demands in early working life and risk of LBP in later working life.<h4 ...[more]

PMID: 33293310

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Project description:BackgroundIn the working population, back disorders are an important reason for sick leave and permanent work inability. In the context of fitting the job to the worker, one of the primary tasks of the occupational health physician is to evaluate the balance between work-related and individual variables. Since this evaluation of work capacity often consists of a physical examination of the back, the objective of this study was to investigate whether a physical examination of the low back, which is routinely performed in occupational medicine, predicts the development of low back pain (LBP).MethodsThis study is part of the Belgian Low Back Cohort (BelCoBack) Study, a prospective study to identify risk factors for the development of low back disorders in occupational settings. The study population for this paper were 692 young healthcare or distribution workers (mean age of 26 years) with no or limited back antecedents in the year before inclusion. At baseline, these workers underwent a standardised physical examination of the low back. One year later, they completed a questionnaire on the occurrence of LBP and some of its characteristics. To study the respective role of predictors at baseline on the occurrence of LBP, we opted for Cox regression with a constant risk period. Analyses were performed separately for workers without any back antecedents in the year before inclusion ('asymptomatic' workers) and for workers with limited back antecedents in the year before inclusion ('mildly symptomatic' workers).ResultsIn the group of 'asymptomatic' workers, obese workers showed a more than twofold-increased risk on the development of LBP as compared to non-obese colleagues (RR 2.57, 95%CI: 1.09 - 6.09). In the group of 'mildly symptomatic' workers, the self-reports of pain before the examination turned out to be most predictive (RR 3.89, 95%CI: 1.20 - 12.64).ConclusionThis study showed that, in a population of young workers wh no or limited antecedents of LBP at baseline, physical examinations, as routinely assessed in occupational medicine, are not useful to predict workers at risk for the development of back disorders one year later.

Dataset Information

Is hard physical work in the early working life associated with back pain later in life? A cross-sectional study among 5700 older workers.

Publications

Is hard physical work in the early working life associated with back pain later in life? A cross-sectional study among 5700 older workers.

Similar Datasets

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