Skip Navigation



Occupational Medicine Advance Access published online on June 16, 2006
Occupational Medicine, doi:10.1093/occmed/kql045
This Article
Right arrow FREE Full Text (PDF) Freely available
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
56/7/494    most recent
kql045v1
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 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 Sakakibara, T.
Right arrow Articles by Uchida, A.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Sakakibara, T.
Right arrow Articles by Uchida, A.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

© The Author 2006. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society of Occupational Medicine. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Short Report

Effects of driving on low back pain

Toshihiko Sakakibara 1 *, Yuichi Kasai 1, and Atsumasa Uchida 1

1 Mie University Faculty of Medicine, Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, 174 2-chome Edobashi, Tsu-Shi, Mie, 514-8507, Japan

* To whom correspondence should be addressed.
Toshihiko Sakakibara, E-mail: sakakitoshi{at}mac.com


  Abstract

Background Many previous studies have demonstrated that driving a car is a risk factor for low back pain (LBP). We have frequent contact with medical representatives who often drive cars for business, and have noticed that many of them suffer from LBP.

Aims To investigate how driving affected the occurrence of LBP in medical representatives.

Methods Questionnaire survey of all medical representatives working in Mie Prefecture (Japan).

Results A total of 551 medical representatives replied (92%). We divided the subjects into Group A (with LBP) and Group B (without LBP). There was no significant difference in mean age, height, weight or duration of continuous employment between the two groups. Mean total mileage was 342 539 km in Group A and 251 945 km in Group B (P < 0.05). There was no significant difference in estimated daily mileage or estimated daily driving time between the two groups. As for backrest inclination, most of the respondents in Group A chose 105° and the majority in Group B chose 120° (P < 0.001).

Conclusion The total mileage was significantly higher in Group A than in Group B. We considered that the risk for LBP increased as the lumbar spine load accumulated day by day while driving a car almost every day without a holiday.

Keywords: Driving; low back pain; occupational; seating.
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.