WASHINGTON, June 30 (UPI)
Job-related
stresses and strains are breaking the backs of American workers,
say two studies in the July issue of the American Journal of Public
Health. Scientists say the problem is not just found in workers
who lift heavy loads or do repetitive tasks all day on assembly
lines. Psychological stress and a lack of control over their jobs
is also contributing to an epidemic of back pain among U.S. workers
that costs billions of dollars in lost work days and health care.
The investigators say, however, that simple measures, like losing
weight or changing methods of handling heavy loads, can help prevent
these injuries.
Susan
P. Baker of the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health in Baltimore
says, ''We're certainly not looking at a problem that can't be
solved.'' In a study of 200 cases of low back injuries among Baltimore
municipal workers in 1990 and 1991, the researchers looked at
departments where jobs were highly physical, such as parks maintenance
workers who might have to move objects as large as pieces of tree
trunks, to educators, who do little manual labor. While physical
demands -- lifting, pulling, pushing and carrying -- were the
major culprit, the study also suggests that the psychological
pressures of a job also can contribute to debilitating back pain.
Poor design of the workspace also weighed heavily on employees
backs. Lead author Ann Myers says, ''We saw strong association
between the risk of low back injury and job strain, the combination
of high psychological demands and low control over one's work.''
The scientists recommend giving workers more flexibility in how
their jobs are done.
They
write, ''All of the risk factors for low back injury identified
in this study are modifiable, with the exception of age.'' Back
pain is the second-leading cause of absence from work in the United
States, after the common cold. It is the most common reason for
filing workers compensation claims, the scientists say. In another
study in the journal, researchers from the National Institute
for Occupational Safety and Health in Cincinnati, Ohio, and National
Cheng Kung University in Taiwan say that 68 percent of the 149
million workdays lost in the United States because of back pain
were caused by job-related injuries.
They
estimate that a 1-percent reduction in back injuries could save
billions of dollars a year. According to 1991 figures, back pain
costs the country between $50 billion and $100 billion. The scientists
looked at data from the 1988 National Health Interview Survey
of more than 30,000 workers.
The
industry with the highest risk for men was construction and for
women it was nursing. Both men and women had high rates of back
pain in grocery stores and agricultural production, the researchers
say. The researchers write, ''It is important to pursue a national
strategy to minimize work-related back pain.'' Copyright 1999
by United Press International All rights reserved.
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