Personal and occupational characteristics of participants (n = 1886); factors specific to person and shoulder (all subjects were male)
| Machinists n = 529 | Car mechanics n = 599 | House painters n = 758 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| D, dominant shoulder; ND, non-dominant shoulder. | ||||||
| *Calculated as number of years with regular smoking × daily smoking intensity. The last mentioned term was expressed as packs of cigarettes per day according to: (number of cigarettes + grams of pipe tobacco + 4 × number of cigars)/20. | ||||||
| †32 missing values included. | ||||||
| ‡Handball, swimming, badminton, tennis, squash, fitness training, weight lifting, wrestling, boxing, and rowing. | ||||||
| §Diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, and thyroid disorder. | ||||||
| ¶Including apprenticeship. | ||||||
| **Currently employed subpopulation: 467 machinists, 548 car mechanics, 612 house painters. | ||||||
| ††For definitions please refer to ‘Exposure assessment’ in text. | ||||||
| ‡‡Exposure categories include the lower limit and exclude the upper limit. | ||||||
| Person specific factors | ||||||
| Age (years), mean | 46.3 | 45.0 | 48.4 | |||
| (SD) | (9.8) | (8.4) | (9.2) | |||
| Height | ||||||
| >185 cm (%) | 18.0 | 15.5 | 12.7 | |||
| Body mass index | ||||||
| ⩾30 kg/m2 (%) | 11.3 | 7.0 | 9.9 | |||
| Handedness | ||||||
| Left handed (%) | 4.7 | 7.4 | 10.2 | |||
| Both handed (%) | 4.0 | 5.3 | 5.2 | |||
| Current smokers (%) | 38.1 | 31.0 | 45.0 | |||
| Never smokers (%) | 37.6 | 44.7 | 24.5 | |||
| Pack-years of smoking* | ||||||
| <20† (%) | 35.0 | 36.4 | 38.1 | |||
| ⩾20 (%) | 27.4 | 18.9 | 37.3 | |||
| Shoulder intensive sports‡ past 10 months | ||||||
| >0 h/week (%) | 27.0 | 29.7 | 21.4 | |||
| Shoulder intensive sports‡, total number of hours, 1980–2000 | ||||||
| >1600 h (%) | 30.1 | 21.7 | 19.6 | |||
| Predisposing disorders§ (%) | 7.2 | 10.0 | 10.7 | |||
| Current occupation | ||||||
| Employee in trade (%) | 80.3 | 76.0 | 75.3 | |||
| Employer in trade (%) | 0.2 | 1.7 | 5.2 | |||
| Other occupation (%) | 7.9 | 15.9 | 5.8 | |||
| Out of active employment (%) | 11.5 | 6.5 | 13.7 | |||
| Duration of employment in trade¶ (years), mean | 21.7 | 20.8 | 22.0 | |||
| (SD) | (8.8) | (8.8) | (8.5) | |||
| Psychosocial working conditions**, †† | ||||||
| High job demands (%) | 32.3 | 28.1 | 19.9 | |||
| Low job control (%) | 38.0 | 37.1 | 23.8 | |||
| Low social support (%) | 33.6 | 33.8 | 44.0 | |||
| Shoulder specific factors | D | ND | D | ND | D | ND |
| Shoulder surgery after the age of 17 (%) | 1.0 | 0.4 | 0.7 | 0.2 | 1.2 | 0.7 |
| Changes in work practices due to shoulder pain (%) | 2.6 | 2.3 | 2.5 | 1.2 | 4.4 | 3.1 |
| Left trade because of shoulder pain (%) | 0.4 | 0.0 | 0.9 | 0.2 | 2.3 | 1.4 |
| Current upper arm elevation above 90°**, ††‡‡ | ||||||
| 0–3% of working hours (%) | 98.0 | 98.2 | 32.6 | 33.5 | 7.9 | 9.8 |
| 3–6% of working hours (%) | 1.8 | 1.8 | 67.2 | 66.5 | 0.9 | 85.2 |
| 6–9% of working hours (%) | 0.2 | 0.0 | 0.2 | 0.0 | 91.2 | 5.0 |
| Lifetime upper arm elevation above 90°††‡‡ | ||||||
| 0–6 months (%) | 80.8 | 59.8 | 12.6 | 10.7 | 2.0 | 8.5 |
| 6–12 months (%) | 18.6 | 39.5 | 46.7 | 40.1 | 8.5 | 34.2 |
| 12–24 months (%) | 0.6 | 0.8 | 40.5 | 48.6 | 40.7 | 55.4 |
| ?⩾24 months (%) | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.2 | 0.5 | 48.8 | 1.2 |