Musculoskeletal Disorders
Conditions
Brief summary
There is high prevalence of back pain and neck-shoulder pain among blue collar workers. Physical excessive exposures such as heavy lifting or working with a bended or twisted back are independent risk factors for back pain among workers in the construction industry. Participatory ergonomic initiatives increase the success of interventions aimed at reducing physical excessive exposures. The objectives are in two phases to; 1) determine which work-tasks in selected job-groups involve the highest load of the back and shoulders during a normal working day (using EMG, Actigraphs, Video). 2) investigate whether a participatory intervention can reduce physical workloads, drawing on information from objective measurements from phase 1.
Interventions
BEHAVIORALParticipatory Intervention
BEHAVIORALControl
Sponsors
Aalborg University
National Research Centre for the Working Environment, Denmark
Study design
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
PARALLEL
Primary purpose
PREVENTION
Masking
SINGLE (Outcomes Assessor)
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
18 Years to 67 Years
Healthy volunteers
Yes
Inclusion criteria
* Full time construction workers who are member of a labor union and can read and understand Danish. * The type of work must include manual work that involves lifting
Exclusion criteria
* life-threatening diseases * pregnancy * hypertension \>160/100 mmHg * unable to participate in the measurements
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Excessive physical load | change from baseline to 3 months follow-up | The primary outcome of the present study is the change from baseline to follow-up in frequency of events with excessive physical load |
Secondary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Pain intensity (0-10) | change from baseline to 3 months follow-up | Change in low back pain intensity during the last week from baseline to follow-up. A horizontally oriented modified VAS scale will be used with 11 points from 0 to 10. |
| WAI questionnaire | change from baseline to 3 months follow-up | Work Ability Index (Ilmarinen et al) |
| Self-efficacy Questionnaire | change from baseline to 3 months follow-up | Self-efficacy to improve the physical work environment |
Other
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Social Capital questionnaire | change from baseline to 3 months follow-up | Social Capital within work teams, between work teams, and between teams and their leaders Reference for questionnaire: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26261190 |
Countries
Denmark
Outcome results
None listed