EPICONDYLITIS AMONG COOKS IN NURSERY SCHOOLS

Objectives-To investigate the prevalence and risk factors of epicondyl itis among cooks in nursery schools in a cross sectional study because they are suspected to have strenuous workloads on the hands and arms. Methods-Prevalence of epicondylitis among 209 nursery school cooks an d 366 control workers aged 40-59 were studied. Both groups consisted o f women workers chosen from 1299 subjects who agreed to participate fr om 1329 social welfare employees in a city. All workers were interview ed with a questionnaire and had a clinical examination of the tenderne ss to palpation of epicondyles and epicondylar pain provoked by resist ed extension and flexion of the wrist. Results-Nursery school cooks ha d a significantly higher prevalence of epicondylitis (11.5%) than the controls (2.5%). In a logistic regression model, job title of the cook was also found to have a strong association with epicondylitis (odds ratio (OR) 5.4, 95% confidence interval (95% CI) 2.4 to 11.9) after ad justment for age, body length, and body mass index. Weaker association s were also found between epicondylitis and suspected job stress or wo rkload scores for mechanical workload and psychosocial stressors based on factor analysis. Conclusions-This study supported the hypothesis t hat nursery school cooks had a higher prevalence of epicondylitis than other workers with less strenuous hand and arm tasks. It was suggeste d that risk factors of epicondylitis would be multifactorial, includin g mechanical workload and psychosocial factors.