Page 37 - Petelin, Ana. 2020. Zdravje delovno aktivne populacije / Health of the Working-Age Population. Zbornik povzetkov z recenzijo ▪︎ Book of Abstracts. Koper: Založba Univerze na Primorskem/University of Primorska Press
P. 37
back pain prevention at the workplace: how to reduce spine plenarna predavanja | plenary lectures
loading in workers
Idsart Kingma
Vrije Universiteit, van der Boechorststraat 9, 1081BT Amsterdam, Netherland
Low back pain (LBP) is a major societal problem, with a global one-year prev-
alence of 37 %. Worldwide, LBP is the number one cause of disability. A wide
variety of treatments is applied in patients with LBP, with moderate effects at
best. Moreover, about one-third to half of the patients gets a new LBP episode
within a year. Therefore, more focus on prevention seems needed. As me-
chanical loading of the spine is a risk factor for LBP, preventive measures to re-
duce these loads might help to reduce the incidence of LBP. Lifting causes high
compression forces in the spine, and these forces have been shown to be high
enough to cause damage to the spine in a part of the population. Therefore,
reducing spine compression during lifting might be effective to reduce the risk
of overloading. Possible measures to reduce spine compression are improve-
ment in lifting technique, ergonomic measures, introduction of lifting devices,
or the use of exoskeletons. In the last decades, we performed studies on ef-
fects of lifting technique, and how these effects interact with task conditions.
These studies show that lifting technique interacts with task details in a compli-
cated way. For instance, the well-known advice ‘bend your knees and not your
back’ reduces spine compression in some conditions, but increases spine com-
pression in other conditions. The best way to improve lifting technique would
be to provide real time feedback during actual working conditions, with feed-
back based on mechanical rationale rather than a simple rule of right and wrong
technique. Ergonomic measures, if feasible in the work environment, can effec-
tively reduce spine loading, but these effects can be partially canceled by indi-
vidual lifting behavior. Introduction of lifting devices has partially been success-
ful in health care, but less so in industry. While such devices are mostly effective
in reducing spine loading, their use is limited because commonly it takes much
more time to lift with a device than by hand. Exoskeletons might be a better
alternative, as these devices are body-worn, and thereby more versatile than
‘external’ devices. In recent years, substantial steps have been taken in devel-
opment of these devices. In the EU project SPEXOR we collaborated with
Slovenian, German, Austrian, Belgium, and German partners to test current
exoskeletons and perform a next step in development. Existing devices show
moderate effects on spine loading. In SPEXOR we aimed to develop devices
that were stronger and more versatile. Effects of these devices on spine load-
ing are promising. Yet substantial development is still needed before such de-
vices are widely accepted on the work floor.
Key words: low back pain, prevention, lifting, spine compression
35
loading in workers
Idsart Kingma
Vrije Universiteit, van der Boechorststraat 9, 1081BT Amsterdam, Netherland
Low back pain (LBP) is a major societal problem, with a global one-year prev-
alence of 37 %. Worldwide, LBP is the number one cause of disability. A wide
variety of treatments is applied in patients with LBP, with moderate effects at
best. Moreover, about one-third to half of the patients gets a new LBP episode
within a year. Therefore, more focus on prevention seems needed. As me-
chanical loading of the spine is a risk factor for LBP, preventive measures to re-
duce these loads might help to reduce the incidence of LBP. Lifting causes high
compression forces in the spine, and these forces have been shown to be high
enough to cause damage to the spine in a part of the population. Therefore,
reducing spine compression during lifting might be effective to reduce the risk
of overloading. Possible measures to reduce spine compression are improve-
ment in lifting technique, ergonomic measures, introduction of lifting devices,
or the use of exoskeletons. In the last decades, we performed studies on ef-
fects of lifting technique, and how these effects interact with task conditions.
These studies show that lifting technique interacts with task details in a compli-
cated way. For instance, the well-known advice ‘bend your knees and not your
back’ reduces spine compression in some conditions, but increases spine com-
pression in other conditions. The best way to improve lifting technique would
be to provide real time feedback during actual working conditions, with feed-
back based on mechanical rationale rather than a simple rule of right and wrong
technique. Ergonomic measures, if feasible in the work environment, can effec-
tively reduce spine loading, but these effects can be partially canceled by indi-
vidual lifting behavior. Introduction of lifting devices has partially been success-
ful in health care, but less so in industry. While such devices are mostly effective
in reducing spine loading, their use is limited because commonly it takes much
more time to lift with a device than by hand. Exoskeletons might be a better
alternative, as these devices are body-worn, and thereby more versatile than
‘external’ devices. In recent years, substantial steps have been taken in devel-
opment of these devices. In the EU project SPEXOR we collaborated with
Slovenian, German, Austrian, Belgium, and German partners to test current
exoskeletons and perform a next step in development. Existing devices show
moderate effects on spine loading. In SPEXOR we aimed to develop devices
that were stronger and more versatile. Effects of these devices on spine load-
ing are promising. Yet substantial development is still needed before such de-
vices are widely accepted on the work floor.
Key words: low back pain, prevention, lifting, spine compression
35
