Skip Navigation


Occupational Medicine Advance Access originally published online on December 13, 2007
Occupational Medicine 2008 58(1):64-70; doi:10.1093/occmed/kqm136
This Article
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
58/1/64    most recent
kqm136v1
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in ISI Web of Science
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Disclaimer
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Aasmoe, L.
Right arrow Articles by Løchen, M.-L.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Aasmoe, L.
Right arrow Articles by Løchen, M.-L.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

© The Author 2007. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society of Occupational Medicine. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Musculoskeletal symptoms among seafood production workers in North Norway

Lisbeth Aasmoe1, Berit Bang1, Cathrine Egeness1 and Maja-Lisa Løchen2,3

1 Department of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, University Hospital of North Norway, Tromsø, Norway
2 Department of Preventive Medicine, Institute of Community Medicine, University of Tromsø, Tromsø, Norway
3 Department of Cardiology, University Hospital of North Norway, Tromsø, Norway

Aims To investigate the prevalence of musculoskeletal complaints among male and female production workers in different types of seafood industries in North Norway and to analyse associations between musculoskeletal symptoms and some possible risk factors in the seafood industry.

Methods A self-administered anonymous questionnaire, covering several aspects concerning occupational environment and health issues, was mailed to employees in seafood-processing plants in North Norway.

Results A total of 1767 employees in 118 seafood-processing plants participated giving a 50% response rate. This included 744 production workers in whitefish, shrimp and salmon industries, and 129 administrative workers in all types of seafood industries. The prevalence of musculoskeletal symptoms was high among seafood production workers. The odds ratio for symptoms from upper limbs was significantly higher for females compared to men. Production workers had the highest relative risk for symptoms from wrist/hands (OR = 4.1–9.4) and elbows (OR = 3.5–5.2) when compared to administrative workers. The main difference between types of seafood industries was the high prevalence of symptoms from wrist/hands among female (82%) and male (64%) production workers in the salmon industry compared to whitefish (62 and 47%, respectively) and shrimp industry (66 and 37%, respectively).

Conclusions Musculoskeletal symptoms were found among the majority of production workers in the whitefish, shrimp and salmon industry, the highest prevalence being among female workers. The main difference between types of seafood industries was the high prevalence of symptoms from wrist/hands among workers in the salmon industry. Cold work was an important risk factor for musculoskeletal symptoms.

Keywords      Cold environment; epidemiology; gender difference; musculoskeletal symptoms; seafood production workers; work related

Correspondence to: Lisbeth Aasmoe, Department of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, University Hospital of North Norway, Box 16, N-9019 Tromsø, Norway. Tel: +47 77 62 84 98; fax: +47 77 62 74 71; e-mail: lisbeth.aasmoe{at}unn.no


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?




Disclaimer:
Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.