Are forward bending of the trunk and low back pain associated among Danish blue-collar workers? A cross-sectional field study based on objective measures
Two articles on PainSci cite Villumsen 2015: (1) Complete Guide to Low Back Pain (2) Don’t Worry About Lifting Technique
PainSci notes on Villumsen 2015:
In this study of 198 workers, not only was there no link between the amount of stooping (forward bending) and higher pain intensity, they actually found the opposite: in this group, more time spent flexing their spines beyond 30˚ was linked to lower back pain intensity.
original abstract †Abstracts here may not perfectly match originals, for a variety of technical and practical reasons. Some abstacts are truncated for my purposes here, if they are particularly long-winded and unhelpful. I occasionally add clarifying notes. And I make some minor corrections.
The aim of this cross-sectional study was to investigate the association between the duration of objectively measured forward bending of the trunk and low back pain (LBP) intensity among 198 Danish blue-collar workers (male = 115; female = 83). The duration of forward bending of ≥ 30°, ≥ 60° and ≥ 90° was divided into high (the highest tertile) and low-moderate (the remaining tertiles) categories. High >5) and low ( ≤ 5) pain intensities were categorised from a self-reported 0-9 scale. Results of multi-adjusted logistic regressions indicated no significant positive associations between forward bending and LBP intensity. On the contrary, higher duration of forward bending of ≥ 30° was associated with lower LBP intensity during all day (OR = 0.40; 95% CI, 0.15-1.02; p = 0.05) and work (OR = 0.44; 95% CI, 0.17-1.15; p = 0.09). This indication of a negative association may be explained by fear-avoidance behaviour of the blue-collar worker, job crafting or healthy worker effect.
This page is part of the PainScience BIBLIOGRAPHY, which contains plain language summaries of thousands of scientific papers & others sources. It’s like a highly specialized blog. A few highlights:
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