DISTRIBUTIONS OF JOB PHYSICAL EXPOSURE DATA IN A POOLED STUDY OF LOW BACK PAIN PROSPECTIVE COHORTS

摘要

Low back pain (LBP) is a common health problem and a major cause of lost productivity inworkplaces. Lifting and lowering (LL) activities have traditionally been regarded as risk factorfor LBP. In the literature, very little data have been reported describing industrial workers'exposures to measured job physical demands using comprehensive and quantitative method, suchas the revised NIOSH lifting equation (RNLE). This study pooled physical exposure data for theRNLE commonly collected in three independent LBP prospective studies. In total, over onemillion subtasks (i.e., lifting/lowering activities) were included in this pooled study. Examinationof the pooled dataset revealed an increased data distribution of the physical job demandsquantified by the RNLE. Research using the pooled dataset will improve the overall statisticalpower and help address the weaknesses identified in previous studies.