Hand-wrist disorders among investment casting plant workers.
A survey of the prevalence of chronic soft tissue disorders of the hand and wrist was conducted 3 years after an initial survey of workers in a midwestern investment casting plant. The second survey of 136 (90%) of the original participants disclosed that (1) approximately 25% had different jobs in 1986, (2) 35% of those who had different jobs in 1986 reported transfers because of disorders, and (3) of those workers with the same job during both surveys, 11% reported temporary job changes due to disorders in the preceding 3 years. Workers with hand-wrist disorders in high-force and high-repetitive jobs tended to transfer out of these jobs more frequently than those in low-force-low-repetitive jobs. We failed to detect a relationship between ergonomic changes and change in prevalence of chronic hand-wrist disorders. This may be because the changes did not substantially alter the force and repetitiveness characteristics of the jobs.
Silverstein
B
B
Department of Environmental and Industrial Health, University of Michigan School of Public Health, Ann Arbor 48109-2029.
Fine
L
L
Stetson
D
D
D000062:Accidents, Occupational; D004185:Disability Evaluation; D005260:Female; D006230:Hand Injuries / Q000209:etiology*; D006801:Humans; D007588:Job Satisfaction; D008297:Male; D009408:Nerve Compression Syndromes / Q000209:etiology; D009784:Occupational Diseases / Q000209:etiology*; D010523:Peripheral Nervous System Diseases / Q000209:etiology; D005082:Physical Exertion; D012307:Risk Factors; D052256:Tendinopathy / Q000209:etiology; D013717:Tenosynovitis / Q000209:etiology; D014954:Wrist Injuries / Q000209:etiology*