Abstract
The prevalence of low back disorders is dramatically high in viticulture. Field measurements that objectively quantify work exposure can provide information on the relationship between the adopted trunk postures and low back pain. The purposes of the present study were three-fold (1) to carry out a kinematics analysis of vineyard-workers’ pruning activity by extracting the duration of bending and rotation of the trunk, (2) to question separately the relationship between the duration of forward bending or trunk rotation with low back pain intensity and pressure pain sensitivity and (3) to question the relationship between the combined duration of forward bending and trunk rotation on low back pain intensity and pressure pain sensitivity. Fifteen vineyard-workers were asked to perform pruning activity for 12 minutes with a wireless triaxial accelerometer placed on their trunk. Kinematic analysis of the trunk showed that vineyard-workers spent more than 50% of the time with the trunk flexed greater than 30° and more than 20% with the trunk rotated greater than 10°. These results show that pruning activity lead to the adoption of forward bended and rotated trunk postures that could significantly increase the risk of work related musculoskeletal disorders in the low back. However, this result was mitigated by the observation of an absence of significant association between the duration of forward bending and trunk rotation with low back pain intensity or pressure pain sensitivity. Even if prospective field measurements and studies assessing the effects of low back pain confounders are needed, this field study provides new genuine information on trunk kinematics during pruning activity.
Highlights
Work related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSDs) affecting the low back are considered in numerous industrialized and developed countries as a major public health problem [1,2,3,4]
The Spearman rank correlation coefficients ranged from -0.2717 to 0.2824 and from -0.1376 to 0.1376 between duration of trunk rotation and pressure pain threshold (PPT) or numeric pain rating scale (NRS) (Table 2)
Our results suggest no association between the duration and the angulation of trunk forward bending or trunk rotation with low back pain (LBP) intensity or pressure pain sensitivity
Summary
Work related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSDs) affecting the low back are considered in numerous industrialized and developed countries as a major public health problem [1,2,3,4]. Farioli and colleagues [5] have recently reported a 46% one year prevalence for low back pain (LBP) among almost 35 000 European workers. The consequences of LBP include disability, early retirement, healthcare consumption, loss of productivity and sickness absences [6,7]. Among all the working sectors, the highest rate of LBP is commonly observed in agriculture [5].
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