Ongoing Projects

Dr. Kurt Hegmann, Dr. Matthew Thiese, Dr. Andrew Merryweather, Dr. Eric Wood

Occupational Injury Prevention, Ergonomics and Safety, Occupational Medicine

This consortial study uses similar methods as the “Prospective Cohort of Low Back Pain (BackWorks) Study” also described on this website. The difference is that this study involves pooling of three prospective cohorts to create a larger sample size that includes a collection of more diverse jobs. Cohorts involved are: University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Ohio State University, and NIOSH. RMCOEH worked with the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee to incept a joint cohort with identical methods.

This study is a prospective cohort study of more than 1,976 workers from 51 employers/sites in six states (IL, MI, OH, UT, TX, WI) to: 1) determine baseline low back pain (LBP) prevalence rates, 2) quantify job and individual risk factors, 3) validate existing job analysis methods, and 4) develop models for predicting risk of LBP. The study primarily addressed LBP but included severity measures including pain ratings, health care, light duty, and lost time.

The cohort completed baseline questionnaires, structured interviews, standardized physical exams, and anthropometric measurements. Job physical measures included object weights, forces, pushing force, pulling force, lifting rates, horizontal lift distances, and vertical lift distances. Workers were contacted monthly for changes in LBP symptoms, new symptoms development, and physical exams. Jobs were remeasured when there were significant changes.

This cohort study has resulted in many important discoveries.