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Meta-Analysis
. 2020 Jul 4;17(13):4832.
doi: 10.3390/ijerph17134832.

Intervertebral Disc Disease of the Lumbar Spine in Health Personnel with Occupational Exposure to Patient Handling-A Systematic Literature Review and Meta-Analysis

Christofer Schröder  1 , Albert Nienhaus  1   2
Affiliations
Meta-Analysis

Intervertebral Disc Disease of the Lumbar Spine in Health Personnel with Occupational Exposure to Patient Handling-A Systematic Literature Review and Meta-Analysis

Christofer Schröder et al. Int J Environ Res Public Health. .

Abstract

Lifting or carrying loads or working while the trunk is in a bent position are well established risk factors for the development of disc disease of the lumbar spine (LDD). Patient handling is associated with certain hazardous activities, which can result in exposure to heavy loads and high pressure for the discs of the lumbar spine of the nurses performing these tasks. The purpose of this review was to examine the occurrence of work-related LDD among health personnel (HP) with occupational exposure to patient handling activities in comparison to un-exposed workers. A systematic literature search was conducted using the following databases: PubMed, CINAHL, Scopus, and Web of Science. A meta-analysis of odds ratios (OR) was conducted by stratifying for various factors. Five studies reported a higher prevalence for LDD among nurses and geriatric nurses (11.3-96.3%) compared to all controls (3.78-76.47%). Results of the meta-analysis showed a significantly increased OR for LDD among HP compared to all controls (OR 2.45; 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.41, 4.26). In particular, the results of this review suggest that nurses have a higher probability of developing disc herniation than office workers.

Keywords: Health personnel; disc degeneration; intervertebral disc disease; musculoskeletal disorders; occupational exposure; patient handling.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Flow diagram of study selection. HP, Health personnel; LDD, disc disease of the lumbar spine.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Forest plot of studies included in the quantitative synthesis in disc disease of the lumbar spine among (a) health personnel with occupational exposure to patient handling compared to all controls (dependent variable: LDD) (b) nurses and geriatric nurses compared to all controls (dependent variable: LDD); (c) nurses and geriatric nurses compared to office workers (dependent variable: disc herniation) (d) high and fair quality studies (dependent variable: disc herniation). † Nurses; ‡ Nurses & geriatric nurses; ¶ Hospital porters and ambulance men. CI, confidence interval; df, degrees of freedom; HP, health personnel; IV, inverse variance; LDD, disc disease of the lumbar spine; SE, standard deviation.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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Supplementary concepts