Manual rolling load and low back pain among workers in Japan: a cross-sectional study

Objectives: Manual rolling of heavy objects remains in the workplace. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) in the United Kingdom recommends load weights of <400 kg in the rolling task. However, the association of rolling weights <400 kg with work-related low back pain (LBP) has not been suffi...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal of Occupational Health Vol. 66; no. 1; p. uiae015
Main Authors Iwakiri, Kazuyuki, Sasaki, Takeshi, Du, Tanghuizi, Miki, Keiichi, Oyama, Fuyuki
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Australia Japan Society for Occupational Health 04.01.2024
Oxford University Press
Subjects
Adult
Cross-Sectional Studies
Female
Humans
Japan
Lifting
Logistic Models
Low Back Pain
Male
manual handling
Middle Aged
Occupational Diseases
Original
rolling
Surveys and Questionnaires
weight
Weight-Bearing - physiology
workplace
Young Adult
Japan
rolling
weight
manual handling
workplace
low back pain
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Summary:Objectives: Manual rolling of heavy objects remains in the workplace. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) in the United Kingdom recommends load weights of <400 kg in the rolling task. However, the association of rolling weights <400 kg with work-related low back pain (LBP) has not been sufficiently investigated. This study examined the effect of rolling loads weighing <400 kg on LBP among Japanese workers.Methods: A web-based survey gathered information from 15 158 workers in 2022. Among them, 15 035 did not handle loads, whereas 123 handled rolling weights <400 kg. Load weight was categorized into 4 groups: no-handling (0 kg) and rolling weights of ≤20, 20-40, and >40 kg. Multiple logistic regression analysis examined the association between the subdivided rolling weight and LBP.Results: No significant differences in odds ratio (OR) of LBP were found for workers handling ≤40 kg rolling weights compared with that for no-handling workers. However, workers handling >40 kg rolling weights had a significantly greater OR of LBP than those not handling loads.Conclusions: Rolling weights between 40 and 400 kg could place a high stress on the lower back. Implementation in Japan of the HSE recommendations regarding rolling load should be carefully considered.
Bibliography:ObjectType-Article-1
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ISSN:1341-9145
1348-9585
1348-9585
DOI:10.1093/joccuh/uiae015