Abstract
This study introduces injury risk curves for the lumbar spine for use in the risk assessment of low back pain (LBP) caused by manual lifting of heavy loads. LBP has been a longstanding problem among industrial workers, giving rise to the development of assistive devices. However, quantitative evaluation methods to verify the safety of such devices have not yet been established. The notable biomechanical criterion of 3.4 kN of lumbar compressive force, defined by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, applies only to young, healthy workers with a fixed risk level. This study on injury risk curves clarified the risk level of injury to the lumbar spine due to lumbar compressive force for individuals within a wide age range. The findings can be applied for the design and evaluation of assistive devices as well as the design of ergonomic guidelines for manual work.
Highlights
Low back pain (LBP) is one of the major occupationrelated diseases
This study introduces nonlinear injury risk curves derived from nonparametric statistical analyses, which are applicable to individuals within a wide age range
The injury risk curves introduced in this study could be used for designing and evaluating manual work, by integrating the results of studies that estimated the compressive force on the lumbar spine [34–36]
Summary
Low back pain (LBP) is one of the major occupationrelated diseases. It is considered that the manual lifting of heavy loads can increase the risk of LBP in various occupational fields. Genaidy et al [20] performed multiple regression analysis and proposed a linear equation for estimating the CS value using age, gender, lumbar motion segment (levels of lumbar segment), and body weight as parameters. They reported the following equation, which includes the risk term “population percentile” (PP). Of this parameter, age, gender, lumbar motion segment (levels of lumbar segment), and body weight were considered, which were used for the linear equation for the estimation of the CS value that Genaidy et al [20] proposed.
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