Occupational and environmental medicine
-
Multicenter Study
Intensive education combined with low tech ergonomic intervention does not prevent low back pain in nurses.
To evaluate the effectiveness of an intensive educational and low-tech ergonomic intervention programme aimed at reducing low back pain (LBP) among home care nurses and nurses' aids. ⋯ Intensive weekly education in body mechanics, patient transfer techniques, and use of low-tech ergonomic equipment was not superior to a one time only three hour instructional meeting for home care nurses and nurses' aids.
-
To examine associations of leisure time physical activity and physical strenuousness of work with physical functioning 28 years later. ⋯ Vigorous leisure time physical activity decreased the risk of poor physical functioning as perceived considerably later in life, while high work strenuousness, smoking, and overweight increased it. Among blue-collar workers a beneficial association was observed with all leisure time activity, including that of lower intensity.
-
Multicenter Study
Dose-response relations between occupational exposures to physical and psychosocial factors and the risk of low back pain.
To assess dose-response relations between occupational exposures to physical and psychosocial factors and the risk of low back pain. ⋯ Occupational exposure to trunk flexion over 45 degrees appears to be a risk factor for low back pain with disability among persons employed in nursing homes and homes for the elderly in the Netherlands.
-
To investigate whether Australian Gulf War veterans have a higher than expected prevalence of recent symptoms and medical conditions that were first diagnosed in the period following the 1991 Gulf War; and if so, whether these effects were associated with exposures and experiences that occurred in the Gulf War. ⋯ More than 10 years after the 1991 Gulf War, Australian veterans self-report all symptoms and some medical conditions more commonly than the comparison group. Further analysis of the severity of symptoms and likelihood of the diagnosis of medical conditions suggested that these findings are not due to over-reporting or to participation bias.