A cross-sectional study of hand/wrist symptoms in female grocery checkers.
A questionnaire was mailed, in 1986, to 1,345 grocery checkers who belonged to one union local in south-central California. Among the 1,058 female respondents (82% response rate), we found a 12% prevalence of hand/wrist symptoms characteristic of carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS). Symptom prevalence was positively associated with age, average work hours per week, years worked as a checker, and use of diuretics. The estimated effect of years worked as a checker was greater for younger subjects than for older subjects, in whom the association reversed, suggesting the selective loss of symptomatic workers from their jobs (a form of the healthy-worker effect). Although no effects were found for specific job-related activities, we estimate that CTS symptoms in at least three of every five symptomatic workers were attributable to occupational exposures.
Morgenstern
H
H
Department of Epidemiology, UCLA School of Public Health 90024-1772.
Kelsh
M
M
Kraus
J
J
Margolis
W
W
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002140:California / Q000453:epidemiology; D002349:Carpal Tunnel Syndrome / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D009784:Occupational Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology; D012307:Risk Factors