Premium
Prevalence and Work‐Relatedness of Self‐Reported Carpal Tunnel Syndrome Among U.S. Workers: Analysis of the Occupational Health Supplement Data of 1988 National Health Interview Survey
Author(s) -
Tanaka Shiro,
Wild Deanna K.,
Seligman Paul J.,
Halperin William E.,
Behrens Virginia J.,
PutzAnderson Vern
Publication year - 1995
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.4700270402
Subject(s) - medicine , carpal tunnel syndrome , national health interview survey , occupational safety and health , occupational medicine , environmental health , health care , family medicine , gerontology , occupational exposure , surgery , population , pathology , economics , economic growth
To estimate the prevalence and work‐relatedness of self‐reported carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) among U.S. workers, data from the Occupational Health Supplement of 1988 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) were analyzed. Among 127 million “recent workers” who worked during the 12 months prior to the survey, 1.47% (95% CI: 1.30; 1.65), or 1.87 million self‐reported CTS, and 0.53% (95% CI: 0.42; 0.65), or 675,000, stated that their prolonged hand discomfort was called CTS by a medical person. Occupations with the highest prevalence of self‐reported CTS were mail service, health care, construction, and assembly and fabrication. Industries with the highest prevalence were food products, repair services, transportation, and construction. The risk factor most strongly associated with medically called CTS was exposure to repetitive bending/ twisting of the hands/wrists at work (OR = 5.2), followed by race (OR = 4.2; whites higher than nonwhites), gender (OR = 2.2; females higher than males), use of vibrating hand tools (OR = 1.8), and age (OR = 1.03; risk increasing per year). This result is consistent with previous reports in that repeated bending/twisting of the hands and wrists during manual work is etiologically related to occupational carpal tunnel syndrome.