Manual handling of heavy loads and low back pain among different occupational groups: results of the 2018 BIBB/BAuA employment survey

Sauter, Martha; Barthelme, Julia; Müller, Charlotte; Liebers, Falk

doi:10.1186/s12891-021-04819-z

Table 2 Manual handling of heavy loads stratified for important variables (n = 14,331; missings n = 0)

From: Manual handling of heavy loads and low back pain among different occupational groups: results of the 2018 BIBB/BAuA employment survey

	Self-reported frequency of manual handling of loads (men > 20 kg and women > 10 kg)
	Never		Rarely		Sometimes		Often		Total
	n	col%	n	col%	n	col%	n	col%	n	col%
Low back pain in the last 12 months
• Yes	2435	36.0	1311	40.2	897	49.7	1651	65.9	6294	43.9
• No	4326	64.0	1949	59.8	908	50.3	854	34.1	8037	56.1
Gender
• Men	3884	57.4	2227	68.3	1133	62.8	1584	63.2	8828	61.6
• Women	2877	42.6	1033	31.7	672	37.2	921	36.8	5503	38.4
Sitting
• Often	5575	82.5	2190	67.2	791	43.8	616	24.6	9172	64.0
• Sometimes	490	7.2	377	11.6	388	21.5	342	13.7	1597	11.1
• Rarely	273	4.0	401	12.3	255	14.1	644	25.7	1573	11.0
• Never	423	6.3	292	9.0^a	371	20.6	903	36.0	1989	13.9
Standing
• Often	1500	22.2	1429	43.8	1232	68.3	2225	88.8	6386	44.6
• Sometimes	1498	22.2	778	23.9	398	22.0	155	6.2	2829	19.7
• Rarely	2056	30.4	881	27.0	122	6.8	91	3.6	3150	22.0
• Never	1707	25.2	172	5.3	53	2.9	34	1.4	1966	13.7
Bending
• Often	89	1.3	175	5.4	221	12.2	787	31.4	1272	8.9
• Not often	6672	98.7	3085	94.6	1584	87.8	1718	68.6	13,059	91.1
Kneeling
• Often	89	1.3	175	5.4	221	12.2	787	31.4	1272	8.9
• Not often	6672	98.7	3085	94.6	1584	87.8	1718	68.6	13,059	91.1
Working over head
• Often	36	0.5	94	2.9	118	6.5	471	18.8	719	5.0
• Not often	6725	99.5	3166	97.1	1687	93.5	2034	81.2.	13,612	95.0
Sometimes working in awkward postures
• Yes	281	4.2	389	11.9	616	34.1	597	23.8	1883	13.1
• No	6480	95.8	2871	88.1	1189	65.9	1908	76.2	12,448	86.9
Rarely working in an awkward postures
• Yes	429	6.3	992	30.4	377	20.9	426	17.0	2224	15.5
• No	6332	93.7	2268	69.6	1428	79.1	2079	83.0	12,107	84.5
Climatic factors
• Often	330	4.9	428	13.1	421	23.3	1172	46.8	2351	16.4
• Sometimes	570	8.4	503	15.4	610	33.8	505	20.2	2188	15.3
• Rarely	505	7.5	876	26.9	249	13.8	265	10.6	1895	13.2
• Never	5356	79.2	1453	44.6	525	29.1	563	22.5^a	7897	55.1
Age in years
• Mean	47.24		47.06		45.55		45.33		46.65
• SD	10.88		11.02		11.32		11.72		11.15
• Median	49		49		48		48		49
• n	6761		3260		1805		2505		14,331
Actual weekly working hours per week
• Mean	43.43		43.90		43.93		44.61		43.81
• SD	6.79		7.66		8.57		8.71		7.60
• Median	40		41		40		40		40
Psychosocial Workload Index WL_PSY (0-100)
• Mean	36.59		39.12		40.93		43.41		38.91
• SD	10.83		11.52		12.13		13.02		11.84
• Median	35.06		37.65		40.25		43.25		37.41

SD standard deviation, n absolute number, col% column percentage; ^apercentages do not count up to 100.0% due to rounding

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ISSN: 1471-2474

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