Self-reported back pain in fork-lift truck and freight-container tractor drivers exposed to whole-body vibration.
To study the long-term health effect of whole-body vibration, a questionnaire on symptoms of ill health was mailed to 242 drivers and a reference group of 210 workers from six harbor companies (response 81%). Vehicles driven were fork-lift trucks and freight-container tractors. Vibration level during a representative working period (vector sum of the frequency weighted acceleration in the x-, y-, and z-directions) was 0.8 m/sec2 for the fork-lift trucks and 1.0 m/sec2 for the freight-container tractors. Only the results concerning self-reported symptoms of the back are described. Of the young (less than 35 years), short-term-exposed drivers, 68% reported that they had back pain regularly vs. only 25% of the reference group of comparable age. With increasing age, the difference in the prevalence of self-reported regular back pain between the drivers and the reference group disappeared. Driving during the 5 years preceding the onset of symptoms seemed to increase the risk of back pain, whereas earlier exposure did not.
Boshuizen
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HC
Coronel Laboratory, Facility of Medicine, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Bongers
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PM
Hulshof
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CT
D000328:Adult; D001416:Back Pain / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology; D016001:Confidence Intervals; D015986:Confounding Factors, Epidemiologic; D006801:Humans; D009784:Occupational Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology; D016273:Occupational Exposure; D009790:Occupations; D016017:Odds Ratio; D015995:Prevalence; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013997:Time Factors; D014732:Vibration / Q000009:adverse effects*