Occupational low back pain in residential carpenters: ergonomic elements of posture and strain

Abstract

Occupational low back pain (LBP) continues to be industry's number one health and safety challenge. Despite the advances in health care diagnosis and treatment, LBP is at epidemic proportions among many industries including construction. Identifying and understanding the risk factors for occupational LBP is critical to the development of effective prevention controls and management. Residential homebuilders make up nearly half of all construction workers in the US. Few studies have been carried out in the home building industry to investigate risk factors for LBP. This study was initiated for the purpose of investigating ergonomic elements of strain, posture, and spinal loading in residential construction as well as personal and workplace factors and their relation to occupational LBP. Subjects were framing carpenters within the HomeSafe Pilot Program. Ninety-four framing carpenters were evaluated for subjective low back strain related to 44 major job-tasks in addition to personal and workplace risk factors. The point, 12-month, and lifetime prevalence of LBP was determined. Ten job-tasks were sampled and evaluated using computer-based ergonomic assessment tools to characterize ergonomic elements of posture, spinal loading, and risk categories. Findings from this study suggest that carpenters do have higher prevalence rates for LBP compared to the general population. It was also found that many personal and workplace factors are related to perceived low back strain ratings of specific job-tasks. Ergonomic profiles were developed on 10 representative job-tasks confirming that postures and spinal loads do vary among job-tasks in residential carpentry. Integrated logistic regression models were developed that identified both job-tasks and personal factors that were related to increased risk of LBP.