[Backache in a hospital environment: epidemiologic aspects and the role of various risk factors]

A cross-sectional study was carried out in 1985 among 5941 hospital workers from the Regional and University Hospital Center (CHRU) of Strasbourg on the occasion of the occupational medical examinations. The purpose was to determine the importance of low back pain among hospital staff and to describe the relationship between individual and occupational characteristics and the onset of these symptoms. Our results confirm the risk-factors determined by other investigators: age, sex, length of service, heavy work assignments (nursing aides, stretcherbearers, nurses, etc.) but also underline the role of obesity and previous attacks of low back pain, and invalidate the part musculoskeletal abnormalities play in this pathology.