0168 Somatising tendency, occupational strain and musculoskeletal symptoms: results from a longitudinal study among Italian nurses

摘要

OBJECTIVES: Musculoskeletal symptoms are a common cause of disability, with majorimpact on workforce wellbeing, absenteeism and productivity. Several, mainlycross-sectional, studies have linked such symptoms to physical workload, and alsoto psychological and socio-cultural factors. We investigated whether prolonged orincreasing job strain, tendency to somatise and other individual characteristics,are associated with worsening musculoskeletal pain.METHOD: As part of the CUPID study, we investigated a cohort of nurses employedon medical wards at the Varese University Hospitals (Italy). Participants wereasked, at baseline and after one year of follow-up, about individual andoccupational risk factors, psychological characteristics (including tendency tosomatise), occupational strain (by Siegrist's Effort/Reward ImbalanceQuestionnaire-ERI), and musculoskeletal symptoms. Associations of worseningmusculoskeletal pain with perceived job strain were assessed by multivariatelog-binomial regression.RESULTS: Occupational stress was associated with pain in the lower back (LBP) andneck/shoulder (NSP) in both cross-sectional questionnaires. Comparing baselineand follow-up answers, workers who reported an increase in perceived stressshowed more frequent worsening of both LBP (prevalence of worsening symptoms=41%,OR when compared with not stressed=1.7, 95% CI=1.1-2.7) and NSP (prevalence ofworsening=51%, OR=1.2, 95% CI=0.8-1.8). This relationship persisted afteradjustment for gender, age and BMI, and exposure to physical workload, and wasmore evident among subjects with a tendency to somatise (OR=2.8. 95% CI=1.0-7.4for LBP; OR=1.6, 95% CI=0.8-3.2 for NSP).CONCLUSIONS: Our observation suggests that tendency to somatise modifiesindividual responses to "triggering exposures", such as psychological workload,with important implications for the health, and productivity of workers.