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A Health Impact Assessment of an Ergonomic Measure to Reduce the Risk of Work-Related Low Back Pain, Lumbosacral Radicular Syndrome and Knee Osteoarthritis among Floor Layers in the Netherlands
Kuijer, P.P.F.M.; van der Molen, H.F.; Visser, S. A Health-Impact Assessment of an Ergonomic Measure to Reduce the Risk of Work-Related Lower Back Pain, Lumbosacral Radicular Syndrome and Knee Osteoarthritis among Floor Layers in The Netherlands. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health2023, 20, 4672.
Kuijer, P.P.F.M.; van der Molen, H.F.; Visser, S. A Health-Impact Assessment of an Ergonomic Measure to Reduce the Risk of Work-Related Lower Back Pain, Lumbosacral Radicular Syndrome and Knee Osteoarthritis among Floor Layers in The Netherlands. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2023, 20, 4672.
Kuijer, P.P.F.M.; van der Molen, H.F.; Visser, S. A Health-Impact Assessment of an Ergonomic Measure to Reduce the Risk of Work-Related Lower Back Pain, Lumbosacral Radicular Syndrome and Knee Osteoarthritis among Floor Layers in The Netherlands. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health2023, 20, 4672.
Kuijer, P.P.F.M.; van der Molen, H.F.; Visser, S. A Health-Impact Assessment of an Ergonomic Measure to Reduce the Risk of Work-Related Lower Back Pain, Lumbosacral Radicular Syndrome and Knee Osteoarthritis among Floor Layers in The Netherlands. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2023, 20, 4672.
Abstract
Abstract: Sand-cement bound screed floor layers are at risk for work-related low back pain, lumbosacral radicular syndrome and knee osteoarthritis given their working technique of level-ling screed with their trunk bended and mainly supported by their hands and knees. To reduce the exposure of the physical demands of bending of the trunk and kneeling, a manually moved screed levelling machine was developed for floor layers in the Netherlands. The aim of this pa-per is to estimate the potential health gain of the manually moved screed levelling machine on the risk of low back pain (LBP), lumbosacral radicular syndrome (LRS) and knee osteoarthritis (KOA) compared to the traditional working technique. The potential health gain was assessed using the epidemiological population estimates of the Population Attributable Fraction (PAF) and the Potential Impact Fraction (PIF) combined with work-related risk estimates for these three disorders from systematic reviews. The percentage of workers exceeding these risk esti-mates was based on worksite observations among in total 28 floor layers. For LBP, 16/18 work-ers were at risk using the traditional working technique with PAF=38%, and for the manually moved screed levelling machine this was 6/10 with PIF=13%. For LRS, these data were 16/18 with PAF=55% and 14/18 with PIF=18% and for KOA, 8/10 with PAF=35% and 2/10 with PIF=26%. A manually moved screed levelling machine might have a significant impact on the prevention of LBP, LRS and KOA among floor layers in the Netherlands and a health impact assessment is a feasible approach to assess health gains in an efficient way.
Keywords
low back pain; osteoarthritis; knee; prevalence; workplace; exposure; musculoskeletal diseases; risk factors; prevention; construction industry
Subject
Medicine and Pharmacology, Orthopedics and Sports Medicine
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
