Assessment of Back Pain and Disability Status among Automotive Industry Workers, Ethiopia
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Date
2018-06
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Addis Ababa Universty
Abstract
Background: Back pain is a very common public health problem in the manufacturing industry and a major cause of disability that affects work performance and wellbeing. Currently, in Ethiopia manufacturing sectors, including automotive manufacturing, is growing well but there is poor culture of work place health and safety in the manufacturing sectors. In the process of automotive production, certain mechanical tasks like manual handling, lifting, pushing or pulling heavy objects increased back problem. Which is not frequently studied and there is little evidence on this problem in automotive manufacturing industry, especially in Ethiopia there is no study to the author’s knowledge. So studying about the impact of back pain among automotive industry workers is one of the key issues in improving worker’s health and safety.
Objective: The aim of this study was to assess the prevalence of back pain and disability status in an Ethiopian Automotive Industry workers.
Method: A cross sectional study was conducted among 412 Bishoftu Automotive Industry workers from February 2017 to May 2018. Simple random sampling technique was applied to select participants from each departments of production factories. The data was collected by face-to-face interview using standard Nordic and Oswestry Back Pain Disability Index tools. The analysis was done by using SPSS version 24. Bivariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were used to determine associations.
Results: The prevalence of work related back pain among automotive production factory workers during the last 12 months and the last seven days were 51.7% and 25% respectively. The prevalence of back pain related disability was 87%. The risk factors of the work related back pain that were identified include; work experience (11-15 years)[AOR: 0.02, 95%CI(0.001−0.46)], tasks that involve bending and twisting [AOR: 2.03, 95%CI(1.19−3.45)] and lifting of heavy loads [AOR: 4.89, 95%CI(2.83−8.47)].
Conclusion and recommendations: This study showed a high prevalence of back pain among automotive industry workers. Furthermore, this study verified workers with back pain and more specifically those working in tasks that involve with the identified associated risk factors were suffer from disability. The problem should have got attention to promote the health and safety of workers to prevent and for early detection and intervention should be planned for those who develop the problem in the automotive manufacturing industry to reduce effects of disability.
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Keywords
Back pain, lower back pain, upper back pain, disability