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Excerpt
Re: Is Occupational Low Back Pain on the Rise? (Spine 1999;24:691–7).
I read with interest the article by Murphy and Volinn in which the authors presented data indicating that occupational low back pain has been decreasing since the beginning of the 1990s. While preparing a future research article, I independently compiled the same statistical trend.
One of the three sources that Murphy and Volinn reported on was the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Department of Labor (BLS/DOL). Similar to those researchers, I was also analyzing data from BLS/DOL. For this database, Murphy and Volinn focused on the 4-year period, 1992–1995. I was able to add data for the years 1996 and 1997, which had been posted on websites established by BLS/DOL.
In addition, two items that were not focused on in the previous study were (1) the number of lumbar-related cases and (2) the total number of days-away-from-work for a variety of categories. These data are also available from BLS. My analyses of the days-away-from-work incidents, for the years 1992–1997, focused on: (1) the total number of lost-time cases, (b) all types of back injuries (including the spine and spinal cord), and (c) all lumbar-related back injuries (Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, 1995–1998, plus two 1999 BLS Web citations).
Table 1
presents the number of cases and an estimate of the corresponding numbers of days-away-from-work for the three categories. Only estimates can be provided for days-away-from-work since these data are presented in discrete ranges. A straightforward method of estimating the totals in Table 1 (rows 2, 4, 6) involved multiplying the numbers of workers listed in each discrete range by the median of that range and summing them. The last range (of days-away-from-work) is ≥ 31. For this calculation, only the value of 31 was used since there was no way of knowing the upper endpoint.
As indicated in the last column of Table 1, between 1992 and 1997, the total number of nonfatal injuries and illnesses with days-away-from-work decreased by 21.4%, while the number of back injuries (of all types) decreased by 27.7%. The number of lumbar-related back injuries decreased only 13.8% during the same 6-year period.
Surprisingly, the total number of back injuries (of all types) is decreasing more quickly than the decrease in the total number of days-away-from-work cases. More importantly, the total number of lumbar cases is decreasing at only one-half the rate of the “all types” of back-related injuries. In fact, as a percentage of “all types” of back-related incidents, the lumbar cases have increased from 39.0% to 46.5% (fifth row, upper percentage), a 19% increase over the 6-year period. Although the raw totals have been steadily decreasing, the lumbar-related injuries still represent a major concern for U.S. industries.
