I. Foppa et Rh. Noack, THE RELATION OF SELF-REPORTED BACK PAIN TO PSYCHOSOCIAL, BEHAVIORAL, AND HEALTH-RELATED FACTORS IN A WORKING POPULATION IN SWITZERLAND, Social science & medicine, 43(7), 1996, pp. 1119-1126
Citations number
34
Categorie Soggetti
Social Sciences, Biomedical","Public, Environmental & Occupation Heath
Back pain causes a considerable loss of working days as well as health
care costs and therefore represents a major public health problem in
industrialized countries. Psychosocial factors have received increasin
g attention from researchers studying the causal factors of non-specif
ic back pain. However, most studies focus on few dimensions, like indi
vidual or work-related factors. We studied the simultaneous associatio
n of various factors representing psychosocial, behavioral, and health
-related dimensions to self-reported back pain. Data from the Berne Wo
rkplace Health Project on 850 employed men and women was analyzed. Bac
k pain was operationalized by a dichotomized variable (having suffered
moderately to severely from back pain in the preceding four weeks). T
he theoretical model guiding the underlying project was a general dema
nd-resource model. Variables that-according to that model-were hypothe
sized to be related to back pain as well as more specific factors-like
physical work load-were analyzed by stepwise logistic regression anal
ysis. in men, there was a statistical trend (P < 0.1) for several work
-related factors (low job discretion, high job demands, low job satisf
action). In women, dissatisfaction with salary was the only work-relat
ed factor associated with back pain. There was no significant associat
ion between private context factors, like poor social network or high
demands/low control, and back pain. Only in men, the likelihood of bac
k pain increased with age, while only in women, back pain was associat
ed with emotional problems (individual factors). Among the behavioral
factors, smoking was associated to back pain in men, while in women no
ne of the behavioral factors was significant. In both men and women re
porting more than two functional symptoms and a history of intestinal
problems were associated to back pain. All of our findings were in the
expected direction, i.e. it was invariably unfavorable categories of
explanatory variables that were associated with higher prevalence of b
ack pain. However, most associations seem to be quite unspecific. Ther
e is a need for theoretically guided research aiming at the developmen
t of a more complex process model of back pain. Copyright (C) 1996 Els
evier Science Ltd