Low back pain among workers in care facilities for the elderly after introducing welfare equipment

The purpose of this study was to clarify the causes of low back pain among workers in care facilities for the elderly after the introduction of welfare equipment.

We conducted anonymous questionnaire surveys among administrators and care workers in eight elderly care facilities. The questionnaires were designed to investigate the status of both the care workers and facility. In reference to the care facility, the questionnaires were comprised items for investigating basic information, occupational safety, and health activities. For care workers, in addition to basic information, occupational safety, and health activities, the questionnaires also comprised items for investigating resident transfer and bathing methods, low back pain, and occupational stress.

Completed questionnaires were returned by eight care facility administrators (response rate: 100%) and 373 care workers (response rate: 92.3%), among which 367 were used for analyses. Many care workers participated in a variety of occupational safety and health activities that were conducted in the facilities. Various types of welfare equipment were introduced into the care facilities and subsequently used by many care workers during resident transfer and bathing. As a result, 89.9% of the care workers reported having only slight or no low back pain. The remaining 10.1% reported having serious low back pain that interfered with their work. On the basis of logistic regression analysis, low back pain was associated with the following variables: failure to provide the appropriate method of care to each resident, failure of colleagues to discuss methods for improving care, lack of instructions regarding the use of welfare equipment, and inappropriate job rotation. An association was also found between low back pain and poor posture, poor resident-lifting technique, insufficient time to complete work, and a shortage of workers to assist with resident transfer or bathing.

Although care workers received instructions on the health and safety activities extracted from the surveys, an association was still found between these activities and low back pain. This was thought to result from some care workers not establishing the appropriate method of care for each resident, not discussing methods for improving care with other colleagues, not using the welfare equipment, and failing to practice appropriate job rotation. These results suggest that low back pain among care workers in the facilities for the elderly that have introduced welfare equipment is caused by a failure to sufficiently conduct appropriate care methods.