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Udo, Hiroshi et al
Dept. of Public Health, Hiroshima University School
of Medicine
Summary: Sixty male workers whose work involves carrying bags
of rice of various sizes, loading them onto large and small trucks,
and then driving the trucks to make deliveries were studied for
a period of 5.5 months. Half wore a preventive belt, designed
and provided by the researchers, and half wore no belt. All of
the subjects selected for the study had previously experienced
low back pain. Examinations concerning low back pain were conducted
before the study, after 2.5 months and at 5.5 months.
The researchers looked at maximum lumbar flexion; finger tip-floor
distance in forward bending; pains in the lower back in forward,
backward and sideward bending of the upper body; muscle tenderness
thresholds in the lower back; and the Lasègue test.
Results: The pain score for the belt group significantly improved,
compared with the non-belt group. Those who showed an improvement
in the kinetic pain score or in muscle tenderness thresholds
accounted for 56.3% in the belt group but only 18.8% in the non-belt
group. The study also notes the rate of improvement in different
pain groups as: 33% among subjects with slight previous pain,
77.8% for those with moderate pain, and 80% for those subjects
who reported severe pain at the beginning of the study. Subjective
estimates of low back pain also improved significantly in the
group wearing belts compared with the non-belt group.
In addition, there was no incidence of acute lumbar sprain
at work during the study period among the subjects of the belt
group, while the non-belt group reported an incidence rate of
sprain of 16.7%.
". . .there was no incidence of acute lumbar sprain
at work during the study period among the subjects of the belt
group, while the non-belt group reported an incidence rate of
sprain of 16.7 percent."
Hiroshi Udo, MD
Study conducted September 1990 to March 1991. Results presented
in 1991 at Japan Industrial Hygiene Society Lumbago Study Group
and Chungoku and Shikoku Districts Joint Industrial Hygiene Society.
(Review of study by Chase Ergonomics approved by Dr. Udo, July
1996.)
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