Documents manual lifting 62 results

"Objective Previous studies have indicated that shift work, long working hours, and prevalent workplace exposures such as lifting, standing, and physical workload increase the risk of miscarriage, but the evidence is conflicting. We conducted a systematic review of original research reports.Methods A search in Medline and EMBASE 1966–2012 identified 30 primary papers reporting the relative risk (RR) of miscarriage according to ?1 of 5 occupational activities of interest. Following an assessment of completeness of reporting, confounding, and bias, each risk estimate was characterized as more or less likely to be biased. Studies with equivalent measures of exposure were pooled to obtain a weighted common risk estimate. Sensitivity analyses excluded studies most likely to be biased. Results Working fixed nights was associated with a moderately increased risk of miscarriage (pooled RR 1.51 [95% confidence interval (95% CI) 1.27–1.78, N=5), while working in 3-shift schedules, working for 40–52 hours weekly, lifting >100 kg/day, standing >6–8 hours/day and physical workload were associated with small risk increments, with the pooled RR ranging from 1.12 (3-shift schedule, N=7) to 1.36 (working hours, N=10). RR for working hours and standing became smaller when analyses were restricted to higher quality studies. Conclusions These largely reassuring findings do not provide a strong case for mandatory restrictions in relation to shift work, long working hours, occupational lifting, standing, and physical workload. Considering the limited evidence base, however, it may be prudent to advise women against work entailing high levels of these exposures and women with at-risk pregnancies should receive tailored individual counseling."

"Objective The aim of the present study was to examine the association between occupational lifting and the risk of fetal death according to gestational age.Methods We used data from the Danish National Birth Cohort (1996–2002). Among 71 500 occupationally active women, 2886 experienced a fetal death. Information on lifting and relevant covariates was collected in interviews around week 16 of pregnancy. The majority of fetal losses (N=2032) happened before the scheduled interview, and exposure data were collected retrospectively from these women. We analyzed early miscarriage (?12 weeks), late miscarriage (13–21 weeks), and stillbirth (?22 weeks), using Cox-regression models with gestational age as the underlying time variable.Results The adjusted early miscarriage risk increased with frequency of daily lifts and total burden lifted per day. For example, the hazard ratio was 1.38 [95% confidence interval (95% CI) 1.10–1.74] for a total weight load per day of 101–200 kg and 2.02 (95% CI 1.23–3.33) for a daily load >1000 kg as compared to non-lifters (P for trend <0.0001). Late miscarriage was associated with total daily weight load (P for trend=0.0073) but not with number of lifts per day. There was no association between occupational lifting and stillbirth.Conclusions In the present study, the risk of miscarriage increased with the number of lifts and total burden lifted per day at work. There may be a case for advising pregnant women against heavy lifting in particular during early pregnancy."

"Manual lifting in healthcare and air transportation is a high-risk activity and a primary cause of musculoskeletal injuries for workers who are required to provide transfer assistance to people with mobility impairments. In the healthcare industry, safe patient-handling programs and policies are accepted as effective ways to prevent worker injury and to improve patient safety. We reviewed evidence-based studies and several websites for disability groups and the airline industry. Seven studies found significant improvements in musculoskeletal comfort levels and declines in musculoskeletal injuries. One study found significant improvements in every musculoskeletal group surveyed. Our review of websites revealed that there were no published research studies or policies about safe handling practices for air travelers. It is evident that passengers with mobility impairments have different expectations for assistance, not congruent with existing services offered by the airline industry."

The present case-control study identified the relative contribution of demographic, physical demand, physical fitness as well as occupational and individual psychosocial variables to back-related work disability in the US Army. Soldiers diagnosed with a lumbosacral strain and medically discharged from the Army (n=174) were compared with non-disabled controls (n=173). Data were obtained from the US Army Health Risk Appraisal (HRA). For cases, these data predated disability determination by 1 to 3 years. For controls, the HRA was completed during the same time period. Significant predictors of back disability were: age, lower rank, infrequent aerobic exercise, higher work stress, worries and lower social support.

"Objectives
Many women experience absence periods from work during pregnancy. Several single risk factors for absence are identified, whereas the impact of multiple concurrent exposures has been sparsely studied. We hypothesized that the presence of multiple occupational exposures would be associated with an increased risk of absence from work during pregnancy.
Methods
We included women from the Danish National Birth Cohort (1996–2002), pregnant with one child and working ≥30 hours/week at interview (mean gestational week 17 (standard deviation 4.0); N=50 142). Information about five occupational exposures (job demands, job control, work posture, work shift, lifting) were retrieved from the interview, each assigned values of 0/1, and summed into an index (0–5). The woman's first absence from work (both regular and related to pregnancy) after the interview was available from a nationwide administrative register. We analyzed data with Cox regression using gestational age as the underlying time-variable.
Results
Few women experienced none of the occupational exposures (3.6%) and most experienced two exposures (34.7%). Only 24.3% of the women were absent from work before gestational week 31. The number of occupational exposures was associated with an increasing risk of absence. The adjusted hazard ratio for absence increased from 1.3 [95% confidence interval (CI) 1.1–1.5] for one exposure to 2.9 (95% CI 2.5–3.3) for four to five exposures compared to no occupational exposure.
Conclusion
The higher the number of potentially adverse occupational exposures pregnant women experienced, the higher the risk for absence from work during pregnancy."

"The American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists (ACGIH) Threshold Limit Values (TLVs) for lifting provides risk zones for assessing two-handed lifting tasks. This paper describes two computational models for identifying the lifting risk zones using gyroscope information from five inertial measurement units (IMUs) attached to the lifter. Two models were developed: (1) the ratio model using body segment length ratios of the forearm, upper arm, trunk, thigh, and calf segments, and (2) the ratio + length model using actual measurements of the body segments in the ratio model. The models were evaluated using data from 360 lifting trials performed by 10 subjects (5 males and 5 females) with an average age of 51.50 (±9.83) years. The accuracy of the two models was compared against data collected by a laboratory-based motion capture system as a function of 12 ACGIH lifting risk zones and 3 grouped risk zones (low, medium, and high). Results showed that only the ratio + length model provides acceptable estimates of lifting risk with an average of 69% accuracy level for predicting one of the 3 grouped zones and a higher rate of 92% for predicting the high lifting zone."

This work is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

"Objectives This prospective cohort study investigates work-related risk factors for occupational back injury among healthcare workers. Methods The study comprised 5017 female healthcare workers in eldercare from 36 municipalities in Denmark who responded to a baseline and follow-up questionnaire in 2005 and 2006, respectively. Using logistic regression, the odds for occupational back injury (ie, sudden onset episodes) in 2006 from patient transfers in 2005 was modeled. Results In the total study population, 3.9% experienced back injury during follow-up, of which 0.5% were recurrent events. When adjusting for lifestyle (body mass index, leisure-time physical activity, smoking), work-related characteristics (seniority and perceived influence at work), and history of back pain and injury, daily patient transfers increased the risk for back injury (trend, P=0.03): odds ratio (OR) 1.75 [95% confidence interval (95% CI) 1.05–2.93] for 1–2 transfers per day, OR 1.81 (95% CI 1.14–2.85) for 3–10 transfers per day, and OR 1.56 (95% CI 0.96–2.54) for >10 transfers per day, referencing those with <1 patient transfer on average per day. The population attributable fraction of daily patient transfer for back injury was estimated to be 36%. Among those with daily patient transfer (N=3820), using an assistive device decreased the risk for back injury for “often” and “very often” use [OR 0.59 (95% CI 0.36–0.98) and OR 0.62 (95% CI 0.38–1.00), respectively] referencing those who “seldom” use assistive devices. Conclusion Daily patient transfer was associated with increased risk for back injury among healthcare workers. Persistent use of an assistive device was associated with reduced risk for back injury among healthcare workers with daily patient transfers."