Musculoskeletal Disorders
Conditions
Brief summary
The prevalence of pain in the shoulder, arm and hand is high among slaughterhouse workers, allegedly due to the substantial load of these body regions during work. Work disability is a common consequence of these pains. Lowering the physical exposure through ergonomic intervention may be a strategy to reduce the workload. An alternative strategy could be to increase the physical capacity through strength training of the shoulder-, arm- and hand-muscles. This study investigates the effect of two contrasting interventions, i.e. load reduction (ergonomic intervention) versus training of physical capacity (strength training) on pain and work disability in slaughterhouse workers. The main hypothesis is that strength training intervention for 10 weeks compared with ergonomic intervention results in reduced pain of the shoulder, arm and hand.
Interventions
BEHAVIORALStrength training
BEHAVIORALErgonomic
Sponsors
National Research Centre for the Working Environment, Denmark
Study design
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
PARALLEL
Primary purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
SINGLE (Outcomes Assessor)
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
18 Years to 67 Years
Healthy volunteers
Yes
Inclusion criteria
* Slaughterhouse worker * the pain should have lasted at least 3 months * pain intensity during the last three months of \>= 3 (scale 0-10) in the shoulder, elbow or hand * the pain should be frequent (at least 3 days per week)
Exclusion criteria
* life threatening disease * pregnancy
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Pain intensity | change from baseline to week 10 | The change in pain intensity during the last week (average value of shoulder, elbow and hand) from baseline to 10 week follow-up between the strength training group and ergonomic group. The ergonomic group will be considered the reference group. 2-way analysis of variance (Proc Mixed of SAS) with repeated measures will be used, with time and group as fixed factors and subject as random factor. |
Secondary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| DASH | change from baseline to week 10 | Disability of the arm, shoulder and hand questionnaire (DASH). Only the work-module of DASH will be included. Analyzed the same way as the primary outcome. |
Other
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| PPT | change from baseline to week 10 | Pressure pain threshold of the muscle of the forearm, external rotators of the shoulder, and tibialis anterior of the leg (reference muscle). |
| WAI | change from baseline to week 10 | Work ability index questionnaire |
| Total tenderness score | change from baseline to week 10 | change in examiner-verified tenderness of the muscles of the shoulder, arm and hand. Scale of no, a little, moderate and severe tenderness. Summed up to a total tenderness score (Andersen LL 2011, PMID: 21177034) |
Countries
Denmark
Outcome results
None listed