[Spinal pathology in self-employed truck drivers]

The truck driver's work requires sitting in a fixed posture for prolonged periods when driving. Such conditions involve exposure to whole body vibrations. In addition, during loading and unloading operations, often done by hand, there is a further excess load on the spine. The paper presents the results of an investigation on the frequency of spinal disorders among self-employed truck drivers. A total of 606 truck drivers belonging to a trade union were interviewed and 63 subjects using the methods proposed by the "Ergonomics of Posture and Movement Research Unit" of the "Clinica del Lavoro" of Milan were examined. There was an elevated frequency of herniated disk and the risk was 4 times higher compared to the control population. The frequency of functional spondyloarthropathy of the cervical and lumbar segments was particularly high, especially in the older age classes (71.4% and 35.7%). The authors conclude that disease of the lumbar spine leads in a very large number of cases to permanent working incapacity among truck drivers before pensionable age.