REPORTS OF WORK-RELATED MUSCULOSKELETAL INJURY AMONG HOME CARE SERVICE WORKERS COMPARED WITH NURSERY-SCHOOL WORKERS AND THE GENERAL-POPULATION OF EMPLOYED WOMEN IN SWEDEN

Objectives-To describe the nationwide occurrence of work related muscu loskeletal injuries among all home care service workers in Sweden, and to identify relative risks and risk factors of the injuries. Methods- The study was based on work related injuries reported to the Swedish o ccupational injury information system in 1990-1. The work related musc uloskeletal injuries were divided into overexertion accidents and musc uloskeletal diseases. The incidence of the injuries in female home car e service workers was compared with those in nursery school workers an d all other employed women in Sweden. Results-In home care service wor kers, the annual incidence of injury from overexertion accidents and m usculoskeletal diseases were 19.2 and 15.1 per 1000 workers, respectiv ely, which was higher than those in nursery school workers and all emp loyed women in Sweden. For five injury locations including the back, a ll the age standardised relative risks (SRR) of overexertion accidents exceeded 4.0, and most of those for musculoskeletal diseases were 1.5 or more in home care service workers compared with all other employed women in Sweden. Total duration of sick leave due to overexertion acc idents was 7.7 times, and musculoskeletal diseases 3.5 times, longer t han in nursery school workers. National loss due to sick leave resulti ng only musculoskeletal injuries in care service workers was about 8.2 % of the total work related sick leave in all employed women in Sweden , although the number of home care service workers represented only so me 5% of this population. Lifting other people was most frequently rep orted as the main risk cause of overexertion accidents in both kinds o f workers.Conclusions-The results support the hypothesis that home car e service workers have higher annual injury incidence of musculoskelet al injuries than nursery school workers due to physically stressful ta sks that are far less common in nursery school workers.