• Occupational medicine · Dec 2008

    Comparative Study

    Working Backs Project--implementing low back pain guidelines.

    • Caitriona G Cunningham, Theresa A Flynn, Catherine M Toole, Robert G Ryan, Paul W J Gueret, Siobhan Bulfin, Orla Seale, and Catherine Blake.
    • School of Physiotherapy and Performance Science, Health Science Centre, University College Dublin, and Occupational Health Department, St Vincent's University Hospital, Dublin, Ireland. caitriona.g.cunningham@ucd.ie
    • Occup Med (Lond). 2008 Dec 1;58(8):580-3.

    BackgroundThe St Vincent's Working Backs Project (WBP) represents a strategy for the implementation of the UK Faculty of Occupational Medicine guidelines for the management of low back pain (LBP) in the workplace (Carter J, Birrell L. Occupational Health Guidelines for the Management of Low Back Pain at Work-Principal Recommendations. London: Faculty of Occupational Medicine, 2000).AimTo evaluate the efficacy of the St Vincent's WBP.MethodsQuestionnaire survey of staff and managers before and after the WBP intervention together with review of Occupational Health Department (OHD) data. The intervention included changes to LBP management pathways and protocols, combined with a guideline-based health promotion campaign. Outcomes included WBP awareness, LBP-related sickness absenteeism, staff back beliefs, intended management of LBP and manager attitudes towards LBP and it management.ResultsFollowing the WBP intervention, 85% (n=46) of managers and 57% (n=124) of staff reported having heard of the WBP. LBP-related sickness absenteeism in the previous year had not decreased significantly (95% confidence interval: -0.03 to 0.06). Among staff, a mean improvement of 1.8 had occurred on the Back Beliefs Questionnaire score. More staff (36%) reported that they would try to stay active (P<0.05) with LBP and would choose to attend the OHD if they required treatment. More managers demonstrated guideline-consistent attitudes.ConclusionsFollowing the WBP, staff and manager attitudes and beliefs towards LBP and its management were more consistent with the LBP guidelines although LBP-related sickness absenteeism did not decrease significantly. Future occupational guideline implementation strategy studies are required which should include a control worksite and rely on pre- and post-intervention organizational data.

      Pubmed     Free full text   Copy Citation     Plaintext  

      Add institutional full text...

    Notes

     
    Knowledge, pearl, summary or comment to share?
    300 characters remaining
    help        
    You can also include formatting, links, images and footnotes in your notes
    • Simple formatting can be added to notes, such as *italics*, _underline_ or **bold**.
    • Superscript can be denoted by <sup>text</sup> and subscript <sub>text</sub>.
    • Numbered or bulleted lists can be created using either numbered lines 1. 2. 3., hyphens - or asterisks *.
    • Links can be included with: [my link to pubmed](http://pubmed.com)
    • Images can be included with: ![alt text](https://bestmedicaljournal.com/study_graph.jpg "Image Title Text")
    • For footnotes use [^1](This is a footnote.) inline.
    • Or use an inline reference [^1] to refer to a longer footnote elseweher in the document [^1]: This is a long footnote..

    hide…