[The "Freiburg Spinal Study"--epidemiology of occupationally-induced spinal diseases of health care employees in Germany].

Musculoskeletal diseases are very common in modern societies. As several international investigations have shown that the etiology of these diseases is correlated with working conditions in some professions. With financial subsidy by the German insurance company for the regulation and compensation of occupational diseases in the health care sector (BGW), we investigated in 6 different projects the possible relation of working conditions and musculoskeletal diseases among health care professionals, esp. nurses. Our contribution describes the design of the different sub-projects and presents some results. The summarising discussion points out that there was a strong tendency in all sub-projects to confirm the hypothesis that nurses run a significantly higher risk to suffer from work-related musculoskeletal diseases and disorders. The results of the sub-project "cohort study in nursing pupils" support this hypothesis. The results do not only supply important background information for the process of compensating occupational diseases in this field but also indicate a tremendous personal and structural need for more and better prevention.