Low back injuries among home health aides compared with hospital nursing aides

Data were collected from all incident reports of low back injury during 1984-1986 among nursing aides at one hospital and home health aides at two agencies in the Baltimore-Washington area. Respective rates of injury were 5.9/100 FTE's and 15.4/100 FTE's (p < 0.001). A majority of injuries occurred during patient-related, planned activities and without the use of lifting equipment. Forty percent of the events occurred at the bedside. Eighty-eight percent of home health aides were working alone compared with 39 percent of NAs. Ergonomic interventions may be an effective strategy to reduce injuries, since 50 percent of the events involved lifting and pushing/pulling activities.