Prevalence of spinal pain among the staff of a district health authority.

Being aware of the many neck and back problems which occur among staff, the departments of Occupational Medicine and Physiotherapy initiated a study to ascertain the scale of the problem among employees of the district health authority. A questionnaire was sent to a 10 per cent sample, stratified by occupation, of the 16,000 employees of a district health authority of which 84 per cent (1363) responded. Over half of all respondents had had a significant degree of spinal pain in the past year, mainly located in the back. In over half of those with pain, their discomfort had been significant enough to interfere with sport, work and sleep. Over one-quarter said they had taken time off work for spinal pain in the past five years. Nearly half of respondents under 25 years of age had some degree of spinal pain. Although a very small group, ambulance workers appear to have the greatest problems. Staff involved in lifting equipment and manual work had a lower prevalence of spinal pain than nurses or ambulance workers, but were more likely to have severe pain for which analgesics were taken. Nurses had a prevalence rate of 60 per cent, but less than one third had frequent or severe pain. Based upon this information an application has been made to implement a programme to reduce both the number of injuries and the severity of those that occur.