Risk factors for low back pain, and patient-handling capacity of nursing personnel

Nursing personnel have a relatively high prevalence of low back pain (LBP). The 1-year prevalence of LBP was found to be 69.7% in a study of 3,159 young nurses (mean age 24.8) in Taiwan. Risk factors for LBP, through forward stepwise logistic regression, were identified as lifting heavy objects, work experience, age, and sitting habits. The analysis showed a significant adjusted odds ratio of 2.81 (95% confidence interval = 1.88, 4.20), indicating that with each increase in the "lifting heavy objects" risk factor there was a 2.81-fold increased risk of LBP when effects of work experience, sitting habits, and age were held constant in the analysis. Matching the job demands to a person's physical characteristics is an effective method of reducing the risk involved in a manual patient-handling task. The psychophysically determined patient-handling strength of nurses was 47 kg (104 lbs), and the strength was highest when bed-height was set at the iliac crest height (90.7 cm) of the nurses.