Back Pain Widespread In Workplace

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