Important work demands for reducing sickness absence among workers with neck or upper back pain: a prospective cohort study

Table 4 One year registered sickness-absence net days (n-days) > 14 days for groups reporting high or low physical work demand exposure

	Work demand exposure
	Low		High
	N	Mean n-days	N	Mean n-days	P*
Lifting ≥15 kg
All	3054	9	1487	13	< 0.01
Women	2226	10	783	15	< 0.01
Men	828	8	704	11	< 0.05
16–29 years	311	3	210	6	0.62
30–49 years	1443	9	677	13	< 0.01
50–64 years	1300	12	600	16	0.01
Frequent trunk rotations
All	2325	8	2203	13	< 0.01
Women	1583	9	1421	14	< 0.01
Men	742	8	782	11	< 0.05
16–29 years	195	4	325	5	0.74
30–49 years	1188	7	928	14	< 0.01
50–64 years	942	11	950	15	< 0.05
Twisted work posture
All	3350	10	1151	13	< 0.01
Women	2271	11	711	13	0.01
Men	1079	8	440	13	< 0.01
16–29 years	321	3	195	6	0.31
30–49 years	1608	9	494	13	< 0.01
50–64 years	1421	12	462	15	0.05
Hand held vibrating tools
All	4214	11	308	12	0.90
Women	2919	11	78	16	0.81
Men	1295	9	230	11	0.37
16–29 years	486	3	33	17	0.32
30–49 years	1957	10	153	11	0.89
50–64 years	1771	13	122	12	0.45
Leaning forward without support
All	3312	9	1201	14	< 0.01
Women	2245	10	747	14	< 0.01
Men	1067	8	454	14	< 0.01
16–29 years	326	3	190	7	0.68
30–49 years	1591	9	521	15	< 0.01
50–64 years	1395	12	490	16	0.07

Four thousand five hundred sixty-seven workers with self-reported neck or upper back pain by gender and age group. Mean number of n-days for description only. P values indicate the difference in distribution of absence days between reporting high or low exposure. Wilcoxon Rank Sum Test * = two tailed; bold numbers indicate a statistically significant difference. N = number of workers

ISSN: 1471-2474