Physical exposure during patient transfer and risk of back injury & low-back pain: prospective cohort study

Table 1 Baseline demographics, work-, health- and lifestyle variables for all healthcare workers and for the low, moderate and high exposure groups

	All			Low			Moderate			High
Variable	Mean	SD	%	Mean	SD	%	Mean	SD	%	Mean	SD	%
N	1285			321			643			321
Female			100			100			100			100
Age (y)	46.8	11.3		45.3	11.3		46.3	11.6		49.1	10.3
BMI	24.9	4.6		25.0	4.7		25.2	4.9		24.3	3.6
Smokers			9.0			9.3			8.9			7.8
Years in profession	17.8	11.9		16.1	11.0		17.6	12.3		19.6	11.6
Working hours/week	34.7	3.4		34.8	3.3		34.7	3.3		34.7	3.5
LBP within the previous 4 weeks (0–10)	1.5	1.6		1.5	1.6		1.5	1.7		1.4	1.6
Back injuries within the previous 12 months	0			0			0			0
Frequency of patient transfers with more than 1 healthcare worker:
0/4			3.5			2.9			2.2			6.7
1/4			19.4			12.8			25.2			14.3
2/4			30.8			29.1			35.0			23.9
3/4			26.4			35.8			25.8			18.4
4/4			19.9			19.4			11.9			36.8
Frequency of patient transfers with patients being so self-reliant that no assistive device is necessary:
0/4			17.5			32.9			13.8			9.8
1/4			31.3			30.4			34.7			25.4
2/4			30.9			23.0			34.2			32.1
3/4			20.3			13.7			17.3			32.7
4/4			0			0			0			0
Level of leisure-time physical activity within the previous 12 months:
Sedentary			5.1			4.7			6.1			3.7
Light exercise > 3/week			63.4			60.4			66.1			61.4
Moderate exercise > 3/week			28.3			30.8			25.0			31.5
Vigorous exercise several times per week			3.2			4.1			2.8			3.4

ISSN: 1471-2474