A pilot study to assess a risk of a high-risk group of low back pain membership in workers who perform the manual material handling tasks

BACKGROUND: We conducted this experimental study to estimate a risk of a high-risk group of low back pain (LBP) membership in workers who perform the manual material handling (MMH) tasks in an actual workplace setting. METHODS: The subjects include healthy workers who were engaged in 12 MMH tasks at 6 manufacturing companies. We assessed the dynamic motion of trunk or lumbar spine using an industrial lumbar motion monitor (BioDynamics Laboratory of Ohio State University). The subjects were evaluated for the age, gender, years of working and anthropometric measurements (e.g., height, weight, shoulder height, elbow height, iliac height, leg length, trunk length, trunk circumference, iliac width, iliac depth, xiphoid width and xiphoid depth). Moreover, they were also evaluated for a risk of a high-risk group of LBP membership based on lift frequency, average twisting velocity, maximum moment, maximum sagittal flexion and maximum lateral velocity. RESULTS: The subjects who were engaged in a packaging at a detergent manufacturing company are at the greatest risk of LBP (63.76%). This was followed by packaging at a leather product manufacturing company (57.06%), packaging at a non-metallic casting material manufacturing company (57.03%), manual injection at a non-metallic casting material manufacturing company (52.00%), toggling at a leather product manufacturing company (46.09%), non-metallic casting material manufacturing company (42.88%), rolling at a non-metallic mineral product manufacturing company (42.12%), shooting at a non-metallic casting material manufacturing company (40.99%), vacuum processes at a leather product manufacturing company (35.00%), looping at a general industrial machinery manufacturing company (33.93%), setting at a leather product manufacturing company (30.22%) and packaging at a general metal product manufacturing company (22.02%). CONCLUSIONS: Our approach indicates that there is a risk of a high-risk group of LBP membership in workers who perform the MMH tasks.