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Health status and health-related quality of life of municipal waste collection workers – a cross-sectional survey

BACKGROUND: Waste collection workers are exposed to several occupational stressors which may affect their quality of life. Our aim was to assess the health status and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) of municipal waste collection workers of a big German city. METHODS: Cross-sectional study wit...

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Autores principales: Velasco Garrido, Marcial, Bittner, Cordula, Harth, Volker, Preisser, Alexandra Marita
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2015
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4493964/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26155300
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12995-015-0065-6
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author Velasco Garrido, Marcial
Bittner, Cordula
Harth, Volker
Preisser, Alexandra Marita
author_facet Velasco Garrido, Marcial
Bittner, Cordula
Harth, Volker
Preisser, Alexandra Marita
author_sort Velasco Garrido, Marcial
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Waste collection workers are exposed to several occupational stressors which may affect their quality of life. Our aim was to assess the health status and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) of municipal waste collection workers of a big German city. METHODS: Cross-sectional study with a non-random sample of 65 (62 male, 3 female) workers of the Hamburg sanitation department, volunteering to participate in the study. We assessed the prevalence of reported health complaints and health problems. HRQoL was assessed with the self-administered EQ-5D-5L questionnaire and its visual analogue scale (VAS). RESULTS: The most common health problems were musculoskeletal complaints (back pain reported by 67.2 %, other musculoskeletal complaints 15.4 %). Asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) was reported by 15.4 % of the workers. All participants reporting having a diagnosis of asthma or COPD had been or were active smokers. Our findings indicate an impaired HRQoL among the investigated occupational group. Regarding EQ-5D 68.3 % reported at least “slight” problems in one or more dimensions, and almost one third (31.7 %) reported “no problems” in any dimension. Problems were most frequently reported in the dimension “pain/discomfort” (64.1 % of the workers). The mean VAS value was 80.9 (13.2). The presence of back pain was associated with limitations in HRQoL (RR 3.1; 95 %-CI 1.5-6.1). The EQ5D VAS score was statistically significantly lower among waste collectors with back pain (77.9 SD 14.1) compared to those with no back complaints (88.0 SD 7.6, p < 0.01). CONCLUSIONS: Back complaints are common among municipal waste collectors and are associated with considerable impairments in their HRQoL. Interventions to enhance ergonomic work are needed in order to reduce back complaints and enhance HRQoL in this occupational group.
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spelling pubmed-44939642015-07-08 Health status and health-related quality of life of municipal waste collection workers – a cross-sectional survey Velasco Garrido, Marcial Bittner, Cordula Harth, Volker Preisser, Alexandra Marita J Occup Med Toxicol Research BACKGROUND: Waste collection workers are exposed to several occupational stressors which may affect their quality of life. Our aim was to assess the health status and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) of municipal waste collection workers of a big German city. METHODS: Cross-sectional study with a non-random sample of 65 (62 male, 3 female) workers of the Hamburg sanitation department, volunteering to participate in the study. We assessed the prevalence of reported health complaints and health problems. HRQoL was assessed with the self-administered EQ-5D-5L questionnaire and its visual analogue scale (VAS). RESULTS: The most common health problems were musculoskeletal complaints (back pain reported by 67.2 %, other musculoskeletal complaints 15.4 %). Asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) was reported by 15.4 % of the workers. All participants reporting having a diagnosis of asthma or COPD had been or were active smokers. Our findings indicate an impaired HRQoL among the investigated occupational group. Regarding EQ-5D 68.3 % reported at least “slight” problems in one or more dimensions, and almost one third (31.7 %) reported “no problems” in any dimension. Problems were most frequently reported in the dimension “pain/discomfort” (64.1 % of the workers). The mean VAS value was 80.9 (13.2). The presence of back pain was associated with limitations in HRQoL (RR 3.1; 95 %-CI 1.5-6.1). The EQ5D VAS score was statistically significantly lower among waste collectors with back pain (77.9 SD 14.1) compared to those with no back complaints (88.0 SD 7.6, p < 0.01). CONCLUSIONS: Back complaints are common among municipal waste collectors and are associated with considerable impairments in their HRQoL. Interventions to enhance ergonomic work are needed in order to reduce back complaints and enhance HRQoL in this occupational group. BioMed Central 2015-07-08 /pmc/articles/PMC4493964/ /pubmed/26155300 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12995-015-0065-6 Text en © Garrido et al. 2015 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
spellingShingle Research
Velasco Garrido, Marcial
Bittner, Cordula
Harth, Volker
Preisser, Alexandra Marita
Health status and health-related quality of life of municipal waste collection workers – a cross-sectional survey
title Health status and health-related quality of life of municipal waste collection workers – a cross-sectional survey
title_full Health status and health-related quality of life of municipal waste collection workers – a cross-sectional survey
title_fullStr Health status and health-related quality of life of municipal waste collection workers – a cross-sectional survey
title_full_unstemmed Health status and health-related quality of life of municipal waste collection workers – a cross-sectional survey
title_short Health status and health-related quality of life of municipal waste collection workers – a cross-sectional survey
title_sort health status and health-related quality of life of municipal waste collection workers – a cross-sectional survey
topic Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4493964/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26155300
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12995-015-0065-6
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