Premium
Psychosocial factors and shoulder symptom development among workers
Author(s) -
Smith Caroline K.,
Silverstein Barbara A.,
Fan Z. Joyce,
Bao Stephen,
Johnson Peter W.
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
american journal of industrial medicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.7
H-Index - 104
eISSN - 1097-0274
pISSN - 0271-3586
DOI - 10.1002/ajim.20644
Subject(s) - medicine , psychosocial , physical therapy , hazard ratio , musculoskeletal disorder , job strain , incidence (geometry) , job control , population , proportional hazards model , confidence interval , human factors and ergonomics , poison control , surgery , emergency medicine , work (physics) , psychiatry , environmental health , mechanical engineering , physics , optics , engineering
Background Shoulder injuries are a common cause of pain and discomfort. Many work‐related factors have been associated with the onset of shoulder symptoms. The psychosocial concepts in the demand–control model have been studied in association with musculoskeletal symptoms but with heterogeneous findings. The purpose of this study was to assess the relationship between the psychosocial concepts of the demand–control model and the incidence of shoulder symptoms in a working population. Methods After following 424 subjects for approximately 1 year, 85 incident cases were identified from self‐reported data. Cox proportional hazards modeling was used to assess the associations between shoulder symptoms and demand–control model quadrants. Results Cases were more likely to be female and report other upper extremity symptoms at baseline ( P < 0.05). From the hazard models, being in either a passive or high strain job quadrant was associated with the incidence of shoulder symptoms. Hazard ratios were 2.17, 95% CI 1.02–4.66 and 2.19, 95% CI 1.08–4.42, respectively. Conclusions Using self‐reporting to determine demand–control quadrants was successful in identifying subjects at risk of developing work‐related shoulder symptoms. Research is needed to determine if this relationship holds with clinically diagnosed shoulder and other upper extremity musculoskeletal disorders. This may be part of a simple tool for assessing risk of developing these UEMSDs. Am. J. Ind. Med. 52:57–68, 2009. © 2008 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.