Pain intensity and duration in a cohort of Norwegian construction workers

Abstract

Abstract Aims To compare musculoskeletal pain intensity and duration of construction workers as a function of type of work. Methods 239 male construction workers in active employment filled out a (baseline) questionnaire for a prospective study of jobs with assumed heavy work load. Reports of pain presented here was collected from the men in four work categories; project leaders/foremen (N = 62, age 45 y, SD ± 13), carpenters (N = 60, 41 y ± 13), concrete workers (N = 35, 42 y ± 12) and miscellaneous other manual workers (e.g. brick layers, henchmen, N = 28, 45 y ± 13). The participants were asked to report pain intensity in different body regions during the last four weeks (0: none, 1: mild, 2: moderate and 3: severe) and the duration of this pain (1: 1–5, 2: 6–10, 3: 11–14 and 4: 15–28 days). A severity index was constructed by multiplying the two recordings, intensity and duration (range 0–12). Two dichotomized variables were defined; for the intensity with a cut point ≥2 (in %) and for the index with a cut point ≥6 (in %). Five % trimmed mean is used due to skewed data. Results Low back pain was the most frequently reported pain symptom for all categories of workers (mean for all: mean intensity: 0.74, intensity ≥2: 23%, mean severity index: 1.64, index ≥6: 13%), expect carpenters that reported knee pain most frequent (mean intensity: 0.78, intensity ≥2: 26%, mean severity index: 2.08, index ≥6: 22%). The miscellaneous worker group reported the highest level of neck pain (mean intensity: 0.84, intensity ≥2: 25%, mean severity index: 2.03, index ≥6: 20%). Due to different time distribution of pain symptoms between individuals the use of pain duration gave additional information. Conclusions Most construction workers reported low levels of pain. The measurement of both intensity and duration allows computation of a proxy for pain severity.