Tests of lifting and handling capacity Their repeatability and relationship to back symptoms

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Abstract
Pre-employment screening of workers for jobs entailing heavy manual handling and lifting is one of the approaches to prevention of back pain at work, but there is no general agreement about the content of such screening and little epidemiological evidence for the predictive value of individual tests. A battery of anthropometric and isometric lifting strength tests, assessment of psychophysically acceptable lifting strength and dynamic skill tests was therefore developed as a preliminary for later prospective epidemiological study. The tests were administered to, and repeated on, a total poulation of 350(234 male, 116 female) people, amongst whom 19% reported that they experienced back pain at least once a month (‘Backs’). The tests were carried out under practical conditions at work, taking about 20 minutes per person. In general the tests proved repeatable. The results for the ‘Backs’ overlapped those for the ‘Non-Backs’, but for the former, psychophysically acceptable lifting strength was not only less, but less repeatable. Using a stepwise regression procedure to study the value of anthropometric tests in predicting strength, no clear picture emerged.