Important work demands for reducing sickness absence among workers with neck or upper back pain: a prospective cohort study.

BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to investigate what exposure to work demands, physical and psychosocial, is associated with lower levels of sickness absence among workers with neck or upper back pain in different groups, by age, gender, duration of sickness absence and work ability score. METHODS: This study was a prospective study of 4567 workers with neck or upper back pain. Data on neck or upper back pain, work demand and work ability were obtained from the Swedish Work Environment survey over a 3-year period (2009-2013). Register data on sickness absence, 1 year after each survey was conducted, were obtained from the Swedish health insurance database. Analyses were performed to estimate the association between self-reported work demands and registered sick days > 14 days. The analyses were stratified for gender, age group and work ability score. RESULTS: Lower numbers of sick days were found for workers reporting low exposure to lifting ≥15 kg and twisted or forward-leaning work postures. Lower numbers of sick days were found for workers reporting high work control and seated work. The associations were generally stronger in the older age groups for the physical work demands. CONCLUSIONS: The findings in this study suggest that certain physical work demands and having high control over one's work can result in lower sickness absence, especially among middle-aged and older workers with neck or upper back pain.

Workplace Interventions can Reduce Sickness Absence for Persons With Work-Related Neck and Upper Extremity Disorders: A One-Year Prospective Cohort Study.

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to investigate whether workplace interventions are effective in reducing sickness absence in persons with work-related neck and upper extremity disorders and whether disorder improvement after intervention reduces sickness absence. METHODS: This study was a prospective cohort study of workers with work-related neck pain or upper extremity disorders. Data were obtained from the Swedish "Work-related disorders" and "Work environment" surveys. Register data on sickness-absence 1 year after the surveys were made and obtained from the Swedish health insurance database. RESULTS: A significant lower number of sickness-absence days were found for workers reporting improvement after intervention. CONCLUSION: The findings in this study suggest that workplace intervention can reduce sickness absence for workers with neck or upper extremity disorders only if the intervention improves the disorder. The interventions were most effective in reducing medium long sickness absence periods.

The Quick Exposure Check (QEC) - Inter-rater reliability in total score and individual items.

The development of musculoskeletal disorders has been linked to various risk factors in the work environment including lifting heavy loads, machine and materials handling, work postures, repetitive work, work with handheld vibrating tools, and work stress. The Quick Exposure Check (QEC) was designed to assess exposure to work-related musculoskeletal risk factors affecting the back, shoulder/arm, wrist/hand, and neck. We investigated the inter-rater reliability of the summary scores and individual items of the QEC by comparing two simultaneous assessments of 51 work tasks, performed by 14 different workers. The work tasks were mainly "light" to "moderately heavy". For total scores, the level of disagreement for shoulder/arm had a Relative Position of 0.13 (95% CI: 0.02; 0.23) and no statistically significant random disagreement. Percentage agreement was 63-100% for individual items and 71-88% for total score. Weighted Kappa of agreement for the individual items rated by the assessors were -0.94-0.77; highest for back motion, and lowest for wrist/hand position. The Swedish translation of the Quick Exposure Check has moderate to very good inter-rater reliability with fair to slight levels of systematic disagreement. There was no statistically significant random disagreement.

A Lower Level of Physically Demanding Work Is Associated with Excellent Work Ability in Men and Women with Neck Pain in Different Age Groups.

BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to investigate which physical and psychosocial work demands were associated with excellent work ability in individuals with neck pain, and to investigate age and sex differences in these associations. METHODS: The study sample was obtained from the Statistics Sweden cross-sectional Work Environment survey and consisted of workers who reported neck pain after work (N = 3,212). RESULTS: The findings showed an association between excellent work ability and self-reported low exposure to lifting, twisted work posture, working with hands in shoulder level or higher, and leaning forward without support and combination of exposures containing these work demands. Low exposure to seated work and high demands showed a reversed association. The associations were present mainly among older workers and were generally stronger for men than for women. CONCLUSION: This study indicates that a lower level of physically demanding work is an important element to maintain excellent work ability, especially for the older worker with neck pain.