[Prevention of low back pain diseases in a center for the disabled]

Our unit of occupational medicine has been asked to solve the problem of an incrising percentage of workers affected by low-back pain in a clinic for patients with handicaps. The consequence of this affections caused frequently absences at work. We organized a course for training about correct methods for moving patient not self-sufficient. The 84 workers, all female (aged 30-45), had to sign on a card all the problems they found at work and their possible solutions according to them. Then we put the cards in a box and we red each one, signing on a blackboard the problems, using a red pen and the solutions proposed, in blue. Bed organization, turnation of patient, and the difficulties in the use of lifter were the principal problems, solved trought the training course made. Then we obtained a reduction in absence at work for low-back pain of about 40% after six months since the beginning of a course of posture exercises made in the same clinic one day a week after work.