[Health indicators and preventive behaviour of older employees in geriatric care]

As a consequence of the demographic transition, the proportion of geriatric nurses aged over 50 is increasing. The present study examines whether the prevalence of skin and back diseases and preventive behaviour differ between this group and younger employees. An additional objective was to record the proportion of older employees with a health- and occupation-related impairment.

2 149 nurses working in home care settings and nursing homes were questioned in written form about their working ability, their preventive behaviour and their health situation. They were also subjected to dermatological investigation (with the Osnabrück Hand Eczema Severity Index - OHSI) and orthopaedic investigation (based on the multiple-step inventory of examinations).

Older nurses more often rated their working ability as "(fairly) poor" than did younger nurses. This applied both to physical demands (11 vs. 4%) and to psychological demands (10 vs. 5%). They were also more affected by symptoms in the cervical spine (28 vs. 13%) and the lumbar spine (56 vs. 37%). Hand eczema was not more prevalent in older nurses. The state of health of 10% of the nurses aged over 50 indicated a health- and occupation-related impairment in regard to work ability and back complaints. Roughly equal proportions of the younger and older groups participated in measures for the primary prevention of back symptoms. The older nurses participated more often in advisory sessions on skin protection and more frequently applied cream to their hands. The younger nurses were in skin contact with water or fluids for shorter periods and more often exclusively used disinfectants after patient contact.

Geriatric nurses with a health- and occupation-related impairment require intensive measures to support their health and to prevent health damage and to stop them from leaving work prematurely. If at all possible, these measures should not be restricted to a single social insurance agency. The individual preventive behaviour to avoid occupational back symptoms is not dependent on age. An age effect was observed for individual measures to protect the skin. Nevertheless, these had no effect on the risk of disease. The results indicate that more attention should be given to older employees during occupational training.