An epidemiologic study of occupational low back pain in truck drivers

The factors in volved in occupational low back pain occurring in professional drivers were investigated epidemiologically with questionnaires (92 items) including low back symptoms, personal factors and occupational factors. The responses of one hundred fifty-three of one hundred eighty-one truck drivers who work in a large chemical industry corporation were analyzed after they had completely filled in questionnaires. As analysis of the results shows, the prevalence of LBP in one month of the survey was 50.3%. Correlating among data of personal factors and LBP, the prevalence of LBP was significantly higher in the drivers (Odd's ratio of 2.7) who answered "yes" to the item "shortage of spending time with family than in the drivers who didnt answer "yes. The occupational factors, working load and working environment showed no correlation with the prevalence of LBP. In contrast, 3 items of the working format related significantly to the prevalence of LBP: "irregular duty time (Odd's ratio of 3.0), "short resting time (2.4), and "long driving time in a day (2.0). Eighty-one of the 153 drivers (52.9%) pointed out the relationship between LBP and work, especially work which muolves vibration or road shock. Our results and the results from previous published studies suggested that vibration is an obvious risk factor for LBP. From the viewpoint of prophylaxis, an improvement in working conditions reduces the incidence of drivers' LBP to some extent.