Background: Shoulder disorders are common in the general population, with an annual prevalence up to over 40% per 1000 person-years. One common disorder is subacromial impingement syndrome (SIS), where a narrowing in the subacromial space causes compression of the tendons or bursa by the surrounding tissues. When conservative treatments are not effective, surgical treatments is often the alternative. The aim of the current study was to assess the association between occupational biomechanical exposures and the occurrence of surgically treated SIS in a large construction worker cohort over a 16-year follow-up period.
Methods: A cohort of 280 747 male construction workers who participated in a national occupational health surveillance program (1971-1993) were examined prospectively (1987-2016) for SIS. SIS case status was defined by primary surgical treatment of diagnosis codes M75.1, M75.4, 726B, or 726C (ICD 10 and Swedish ICD 9 code systems), with data from the Swedish national registry for in- and out-patient surgery records. A job exposure matrix (JEM) was developed and biomechanical exposure estimates were assigned according to job title. Poisson regression models adjusted for age, BMI, smoking and a surgical time factor were used to estimate the relative risks (incidence rate ratios) of surgical treatment for SIS for each biomechanical factor.
Results: There were 1381 cases in the cohort, which corresponded to an incidence rate of surgically treated SIS over the 16-year observation period of 46 cases per 100,000 person years. Increased risk for surgically treated SIS was shown for working with elevated arms (RR=1.27, 95% CI=1.02-1.58), heavy upper arm loads (RR=1.75, 95% CI=1.48-2.08), high grip force (RR=1.64, 95% CI=1.40-1.93), working with hand tools (RR=1.46, 95% CI=1.26-1.70), working with hand tools in a fixed posture (RR=1.28, 95% CI=1.14-1.44), and working with hand-arm vibration (RR=1.30, 95% CI=1.09-1.55).
Conclusions: Working with elevated arms, high arm load, high grip force and vibrating handheld tools may increase the risk for SIS.
2019. s. 165-165
PREMUS 2019 10th International Scientific Conference on the Prevention of Work-Related Muscoluskeletal Disorders, Bologna, Italy, 2-5 September, 2019