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A cross‐sectional study of hand/wrist symptoms in female grocery checkers
Author(s) -
Morgenstern Hal,
Kelsh Michael,
Kraus Jess,
Margolis Wendy
Publication year - 1991
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.4700200207
Subject(s) - medicine , wrist , carpal tunnel syndrome , cross sectional study , physical therapy , demography , occupational medicine , epidemiology , surgery , pathology , sociology
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.