Physical and Psychosocial Work Environmental Risk Factors for Back Injury among Healthcare Workers: Prospective Cohort Study.

Andersen Andersen,Vinstrup Vinstrup,Villadsen Villadsen,Jakobsen Jakobsen,Jay Jay

doi:10.3390/ijerph16224528

Abstract

The incidence of occupational back injury in the healthcare sector remains high despite decades of efforts to reduce such injuries. This prospective cohort study investigated the risk factors for back injury during patient transfer. Healthcare workers (n = 2080) from 314 departments at 17 hospitals in Denmark replied to repeated questionnaires sent every 14 days for one year. Using repeated-measures binomial logistic regression, controlling for education, work, lifestyle, and health, the odds for back injury (i.e., sudden onset episodes) were modeled. On the basis of 482 back injury events, a higher number of patient transfers was an important risk factor, with odds ratio (OR) 3.58 (95% confidence interval (CI) 2.51–5.10) for 1–4 transfers per day, OR 7.60 (5.14–11.22) for 5–8 transfers per day, and OR 8.03 (5.26–12.27) for 9 or more transfers per day (reference: less than 1 per day). The lack of necessary assistive devices was a common phenomenon during back injury events, with the top four lacking devices being sliding sheets (30%), intelligent beds (19%), walking aids (18%), and ceiling lifts (13%). For the psychosocial factors, poor collaboration between and support from colleagues increased the risk for back injury, with OR 3.16 (1.85–5.39). In conclusion, reducing the physical burden in terms of number of daily patient transfers, providing the necessary assistive devices, and cultivating good collaboration between colleagues are important factors in preventing occupational back injuries among healthcare workers.

Highlights

Recent data from the Global Burden of Disease Study shows that low-back pain continues to be a leading cause of years lived with disability [1]
A higher number of patient transfers was—in an exposure–response fashion—an important risk factor, with odds ratio (OR) 3.58 for 1–4 transfers per day, OR 7.60 (5.14–11.22) for 5–8 transfers per day, and OR 8.03 (5.26–12.27) for 9 or more transfers per day
This study investigated physical and psychosocial work environmental risk factors for back injury during patient transfer among healthcare workers at hospitals

Summary

Introduction

Recent data from the Global Burden of Disease Study shows that low-back pain continues to be a leading cause of years lived with disability [1]. Frequent turns, twisting and bending of the back, are among the commonly reported work-related risk factors for low-back pain [2,3]. These are associated with increased risk for long-term sickness absence [4,5] and early involuntary retirement from the labor market [6,7,8]. Such physical exposures are common among workers with manual material handling as well as among healthcare workers. Several studies show an association between patient transfer and risk of back injury [10,11,12,13,14], and biomechanical studies confirm the high physical loading of the back during such work [15,16,17]

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Discussion

Conclusion