Musculoskeletal signs in female homecare personnel: A longitudinal epidemiological study

BACKGROUND: In Sweden, homecare services take care of elderly and disabled people, work that often requires heavy lifting and forward bending, resulting in high prevalences of pain and work accidents. OBJECTIVE: Using an eight-year follow-up, this study determines the prognostic importance of certain musculoskeletal signs reported in earlier studies [1, 2] with respect to aspects of pain and perceived disability. METHODS: Baseline data has been reported in earlier studies of 607 women [1–3]. This study uses a postal questionnaire survey and reports the results of eight years post initial study. RESULTS: Segmental pain at L4-L5 and/or L5-S1 levels was associated with higher low back pain intensity and disability at the eight-year follow-up. A decrease in low back pain intensity over eight years was larger for those with segmental pain. The important signs in the longitudinal analyses of pain aspects and disability were lumbar spinal mobility and segmental pain at L4-L5 and L5-S1 levels, but the explained variations were low. CONCLUSION: Evaluation of low lumbar segmental pain provocation and mobility should be considered in routine clinical assessments, as this type of evaluation provides prognostic pain and disability information over time.