Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany.
Center for Public Health and Health Care, Medical Sociology Unit, Hannover Medical School, Carl- Neuberg-Str. 1, 30625, Hannover, Germany.
BMC Musculoskelet Disord. 2024 Oct 26;25(1):852. doi: 10.1186/s12891-024-07970-5.
Low back pain (LBP) is a common health problem in workers that contributes to work disability and reduces quality of life. However, studies examining vulnerable groups in relation to sociodemographic differences in LBP remain scarce. Therefore, the current study investigates which sociodemographic groups of workers are most affected by LBP.
Data from the 2018 BIBB/BAuA employment survey were used (N = 16252). Age, education, occupational group, income, working hours, atypical working time, relationship status, and having children were used as sociodemographic predictors. Gender-stratified logistic regression analyses and intersectional classification tree analyses were conducted.
A higher prevalence of LBP was observed for women compared to men. Significant differences in LBP emerged for age, working hours, atypical working time, occupational group and education, with some gender differences in the importance of predictors: Age was a significant predictor mostly in men as compared to women, atypical working hours had a slightly greater effect in women, whereas differences in LBP according to the occupational group were more pronounced for men. Vulnerable groups were found to be women who work in occupations other than professionals or managers, work atypical hours and have an intermediate or low educational level as well as men who work as skilled agricultural workers, craft workers, machine operators, or elementary occupations and are between 35 and 64 years old.
Thus, workers with certain occupations and lower levels of education, middle-aged men and women with unfavourable working time characteristics are most affected by low back pain. These groups should be focused on to potentially increase healthy working life and prevent work disability.
下背痛（LBP）是工人中常见的健康问题，导致工作残疾并降低生活质量。然而，关于 LBP 与社会人口学差异相关的脆弱群体的研究仍然很少。因此，本研究调查了哪些工人的社会人口学群体受 LBP 的影响最大。
使用 2018 年 BIBB/BAuA 就业调查的数据（N=16252）。年龄、教育程度、职业群体、收入、工作时间、非典型工作时间、婚姻状况和子女情况被用作社会人口学预测因素。进行了性别分层逻辑回归分析和交叉分类树分析。
与男性相比，女性的 LBP 患病率更高。LBP 在年龄、工作时间、非典型工作时间、职业群体和教育程度方面存在显著差异，预测因素的重要性存在一些性别差异：年龄是男性比女性更重要的预测因素，非典型工作时间对女性的影响略大，而根据职业群体的 LBP 差异在男性中更为明显。脆弱群体包括从事专业或管理人员以外职业的女性、工作非典型时间的女性以及中等或低教育程度的女性，以及年龄在 35 至 64 岁之间的从事熟练农业工人、手工艺工人、机器操作员或初级职业的男性。
因此，具有某些职业和较低教育水平的工人、中年男性和女性具有不利的工作时间特征，受下背痛的影响最大。应关注这些群体，以提高健康工作寿命并预防工作残疾。
