Prevalence and associated factors of spinal pain among food industry workers in the city of Shiraz

• Main Authors: SeyedAlireza Derakhshan Rad, Fahimeh Kamali, SeyedMohammadreza Dastgheibi, Abbas Alipour
• Format: Article
• Language: fas
• Published: Jahrom University of Medical Sciences 2010-07-01
• Series: فصلنامه دانشگاه علوم پزشکی جهرم
• Subjects: spinal column; pain; risk factors; prevalence; food industries; workers
• Online Access: http://jmj.jums.ac.ir/article-1-856-en.html

Introduction: Spinal pain is considered as one of the important job lesions among workers of industrial plants due to heavy labor and lots of manual material handlings. So, the aim of this study was to assess the prevalence of spinal pain and associated factors among production line workers in Shiraz. Material and Methods: In a cross-sectional study, the prevalence of pain and its associated factors were examined in 289 workers through a self-reported researcher-designed questionnaire. The samples were selected based on inclusion criteria and through sampling with appropriate classification among the plants with a population of more than 100 people. χ2 test and logistic regression was used to analyze the data. Results: 53.9% of the samples experienced pain in at least one area of the spine, including cervical vertebrae (5.9%), thoracic (11.1%), lumbar (50.9%) and sacroiliac and coccyx (3.5%). By logistic regression analysis, the factors significantly related to low level of pain prevalence were regular exercise [OR=0.19], enough working space [OR=0.39], lack of exposure to risk factors such as lifting relatively heavy loads [OR=0.21], frequent trunk [OR=0/36] and neck bending [OR=0.13]. On the other hand, factors that were significantly related to high levels of pain prevalence were using hand tools [OR=4.24], lack of resting time [OR=12.87], and resting time less than two hours [OR=5.79]. Conclusion: Prevalence of spinal pain, especially low back pain is relatively high among workers. Limited work space, unsafe use of tools, and inactive life style were the most influential factors related to the high level of spinal pain prevalence.