Low back functional capacities, low back pain and occupational stress - Study on exposures to manual handling, whole-body vibrations and postures

Low back pain is one of the most frequent cause of medical consulting, and its incidence at work is considered as very important. An apparatus called "rachimètre" was used to assess possible functional disturbances of the lumbar area in 1970 workers (1275 men and 675 women) in 49 french factories. Occupational physical strain considered were : whole-body vibrations and manual handling for men, and static postures and manual handling for women. A group of 208 workers (104 men and 104Êwomen) not exposed to the previous strains was considered as control group.
The results show that about 70 % of the population is concerned by low back pain, whatever the occupational strain. Severity and frequency of low back pain are significantly higher for women in manual handling tasks compared to the other women group. This result is confirmed by the lumbar functional impairement in this population. The male workers exposed to whole-body vibrations and manual handling show a significantly functional impairement, whereas their clinical low back pain levels are equivalent to those of the male reference group.
From these results, it can be concluded that the worker under occupational strains are the most exposed to lumbar pain. Preventive actions have to be considered in work place improvements, and workers information and education.