title: Study protocol title: a prospective cohort study of low back pain.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Few prospective cohort studies of workplace low back pain (LBP) with quantified job physical exposure have been performed. There are few prospective epidemiological studies for LBP occupational risk factors and reported data generally have few adjustments for many personal and psychosocial factors.
  
  
  METHODS
  A multi-center prospective cohort study has been incepted to quantify risk factors for LBP and potentially develop improved methods for designing and analyzing jobs. Due to the subjectivity of LBP, six measures of LBP are captured: 1) any LBP, 2) LBP ≥ 5/10 pain rating, 3) LBP with medication use, 4) LBP with healthcare provider visits, 5) LBP necessitating modified work duties and 6) LBP with lost work time. Workers have thus far been enrolled from 30 different employment settings in 4 diverse US states and performed widely varying work. At baseline, workers undergo laptop-administered questionnaires, structured interviews, and two standardized physical examinations to ascertain demographics, medical history, psychosocial factors, hobbies and physical activities, and current musculoskeletal disorders. All workers' jobs are individually measured for physical factors and are videotaped. Workers are followed monthly for the development of low back pain. Changes in jobs necessitate re-measure and re-videotaping of job physical factors. The lifetime cumulative incidence of low back pain will also include those with a past history of low back pain. Incident cases will exclude prevalent cases at baseline. Statistical methods planned include survival analyses and logistic regression.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Data analysis of a prospective cohort study of low back pain is underway and has successfully enrolled over 800 workers to date.
authors.affiliation: Center for Ergonomics, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Milwaukee, WI 53201, USA. arun@uwm.edu
authors.forename: Arun
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Garg
authors.forename: Kurt T
authors.initials: KT
authors.lastname: Hegmann
authors.forename: J Steven
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Moore
authors.forename: Jay
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kapellusch
authors.forename: Matthew S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Thiese
authors.forename: Sruthi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Boda
authors.forename: Parag
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Bhoyr
authors.forename: Donald
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Bloswick
authors.forename: Andrew
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Merryweather
authors.forename: Richard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Sesek
authors.forename: Gwen
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Deckow-Schaefer
authors.forename: James
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Foster
authors.forename: Eric
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Wood
authors.forename: Xiaoming
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Sheng
authors.forename: Richard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Holubkov
mesh_terms: D000041:Absenteeism; D006804:Ergonomics; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D016015:Logistic Models; D017116:Low Back Pain / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000401:mortality / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000628:therapy; D009784:Occupational Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000401:mortality / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000628:therapy; D016272:Occupational Health; D009790:Occupations; D010147:Pain Measurement; D010808:Physical Examination; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012107:Research Design; D012307:Risk Factors; D018582:Sick Leave; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D016019:Survival Analysis; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology; D014741:Video Recording; D017132:Workplace