rss
Occup Environ Med 2007;64:115-121 doi:10.1136/oem.2006.029603
  • Original article

Different working and living conditions and their associations with persistent neck/shoulder and/or low back disorders

  1. Ola Leijon1,
  2. Per Lindberg2,
  3. Malin Josephson3,
  4. Christina Wiktorin1
  1. 1Division of Occupational Medicine, Department of Public Health Sciences, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden
  2. 2Section of Personal Injury Prevention, Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden
  3. 3Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Department of Medical Sciences, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden
  1. Correspondence to:
 Dr O Leijon
 Department of Occupational and Environmental Health, Stockholm Centre for Public Health, Norrbacka, SE-171 76 Stockholm, Sweden;ola.leijon{at}sll.se
  • Accepted 29 September 2006
  • Published Online First 16 October 2006

Abstract

Objectives: To investigate whether different combinations of working and living conditions are associated with the risk for persistent neck/shoulder and/or low back disorders. The underlying purpose of this contextual approach was to identify target groups for primary/secondary prevention.

Methods: In a baseline study, 11 groups with different working and living conditions were identified by cluster analysis. In this study, these 11 groups were followed up by a postal questionnaire 5 years after baseline (response rate 82%, n = 1095).

Results: Five of the groups—the onerous human services job, the free agent, the family burden, the mentally stretched and the physically strained groups—had an increased risk for persistent disorders (OR 2.38–2.70). Four of these groups had rather sex-specific working and living conditions.

Conclusions: The results support the hypothesis that different combinations of working and living conditions may increase the risk for persistent neck/shoulder and/or low back disorders to different degrees. Sex-specific working and living conditions increased the risk for women as well as for men, irrespective of whether the conditions were specific to women or men.

Footnotes

  • Published Online First 16 October 2006

  • Funding: Financial support for the MUSIC-Norrtälje Study was provided by grants from the Swedish Council for Working Life and Social Research and the Stockholm County Council.

  • Competing interests: None declared.

This Article

  1. Abstract
  2. Full text
  3. PDF
  4. All Versions of this Article:
    1. oem.2006.029603v1
    2. 64/2/115 most recent

Responses

  1. Submit a response
  2. No responses published

Social bookmarking

Register for free content


Free sample
 This recent issue is free to all users to allow everyone the opportunity to see the full scope and typical content of OEM.
View free sample issue >>

Free archive
The full back archive is now available for OEM. Institutional subscribers may access the entire archive as part of their subscription. Personal subscribers will also have access to all content when logged in. Non-subscribers who register have free access to all articles published before 2006, back to volume 1 issue 1.
Register to access the free archive >>

Don't forget to sign up for content alerts so you keep up to date with all the articles as they are published.