Back pain and its correlates among workers in family care

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Abstract
In order to assess the prevalence of back pain problems among family care workers, and the association of back pain with selected variables, a cross-sectional survey among the 4723 employees of the largest Flemish organization for family care was conducted. A self-administered questionnaire comparable to the standardized Nordic questionnaire on musculoskeletal symptoms was distributed to all employees of the organization. The response rate was 90 per cent (n=4256) and the study population was almost uniformly composed of females (99.8 per cent). The period prevalence (12 months) amounted to 63 per cent (95 per cent Cl: 61.7–64.6) and the point prevalence to 18 percent (95 per cent Cl: 16.5–18.8). Among the respondents suffering from back pain during the past year, 72 per cent suffered from repeated episodes of pain. In 82 per cent low back pain was involved. Twenty-nine per cent of the complainants interrupted their work during the past year, yielding a total number of 23396 days of sick leave. The mean sick leave for back pain was 36 days and the median 15 days. The frequency of back pain was found to vary according to the regional departments to which the employees belonged, some sections experiencing up to 36 per cent higher period prevalences than the units with the lowest figures. Statistically significant associations of back pain were found with age, seniority, a history of back pain, living together with a partner, care for persons outside the family, the unavailability of adequate cleaning material and sanitary comfort, the imbalance between the demand of the family and the formal agreement, and the subjective perception of work overload. A cluster of complaints and overload was found among persons younger than 45, working 29 to 36 hours a week. Finally, the relevance and the limitations of these findings are discussed.

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