title: [Long-term absenteeism due to lower back pain: the case of health care professionals in the hospital sector].
abstract: Following the launch and implementation of a national program for the prevention of chronic low back pain for nursing staff in hospitals in Belgium, two studies were conducted to precisely assess the incidence of long-term sick leave (28 days or more) among this category of workers in this regard. The first was centred on the administrative level and was carried out through a questionnaire survey in 2005 among the 650 members of the nursing staff at the university hospital in Liege. A second study was carried out involving 4 large hospitals: 3 in the French-speaking region of Belgium, and one in the Dutch-speaking region. The workers' medical files were screened to identify those who had undergone a "return to work (RTW) examination" between Jan 1st 2003 and Dec 31st 2004. The medical diagnosis at the origin of the sick leave was searched in order to assess the number of low back pain induced sick leaves among nurses. In the first survey, 1.95% of nursing staff have reported a work absence of 28 days or more due to low back pain over a 12 months period. The second study, based on the prolonged sick leaves registered in the nurses' medical files, showed that the prevalence of a 28 days or more sick leave due to back pain varied between 5.1 and 7.6 work absences per year and per 1000 nurses at work. These prevalence figures indicate that in each health care institution the target group for the prevention programme intended for nursing staff would rarely exceed 10 people per year; this may have important implications for the actual implementation of this programme.
authors.affiliation: Service de Santé au travail et education pour la santé, Université de Liège Sart Tilman B23, B-4000 Liège.
authors.forename: Sarah
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Vidick
authors.forename: Philippe
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Mairiaux
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001530:Belgium / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D017116:Low Back Pain / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000517:prevention & control; D008297:Male; D009741:Nursing Staff, Hospital; D009784:Occupational Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000517:prevention & control; D015995:Prevalence; D018582:Sick Leave / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013997:Time Factors