[Workload, gender and age among personnel with reported sudden lifting injuries]

In 1996 the Danish Parliament passed a new Act on industrial injuries, including the so-called sudden lifting injuries. This type of lifting injury had been experienced in some industries in connection with lifting situations causing sudden pain in the back. Less frequently, other regions of the body may be affected. This study is a distribution of a sample of reported industrial injuries of this type in groups according to types of lifts. The study also includes a comparison with parameters from the Danish Work Environment Cohort Study.

The sample consisted of a total of 482 cases of back injuries. Of these, 346 cases were distributed according to six categories of manual lifting work and to age and gender. The rest, 136 cases, were excluded for technical reasons.

In the distribution, 8% of the cases were in jobs with many heavy lifts, 66% of the cases were in jobs with moderate daily lifted weights or in jobs with only few or light lifts. Approximately 25% of cases concerned employees performing patient transfers. The distribution contained more men than the Danish Work Environment Cohort Study, and the persons in the cases were slightly older than this reference population.

Altogether, this study points towards an occurrence of sudden lifting injuries among employees performing certain types of manual lifting work. The industrial injuries cases may have been subject to some selection.