Sacroiliac dysfunction in construction workers

Background: In the literature of manual medicine the sacroiliac joint is wi dely accepted as a potential source of low back pain. On the other hand, so me investigations have detected sacroiliac joint dysfunction without concom itant low back pain. The prevalence of sacroiliac dysfunction in the popula tion has been noted in the medical literature to be between 19.3% and 47.9% . However, the prevalence of sacroiliac dysfunction in the general populati on and for construction workers is unknown. Objective: This article presents results from the Hamburg Construction Work ers Study in respect to sacroiliac diagnostics. The prevalence of and conne ction between sacroiliac dysfunction and low back pain are particularly int eresting. Design and Participants: The sacroiliac joint diagnostics were studied in a cross-section investigation of a cohort of 480 male construction workers. Manual examination is the standard in the diagnostics of sacroiliac joint c onditions at present. The assess-ment of sacroiliac joint function by stand ing flexion test, the spine test, the iliac compression test, and the iliac springing test was operationalized as two categories: sacroiliac dysfuncti on I and II. Results: A prevalence of 29.0% was found for dysfunction I and 6.3% for dys function II, whereas a prevalence of 7.9% was found for the coprevalence of low back pain and sacroiliac dysfunction on the day of examination. This s tudy demonstrated no statistical associations between low back pain and sac roiliac joint dysfunction. Conclusions: The reason why symptomatic and asymptomatic sacroiliac dysfunc tions exist has not yet been sufficiently explained. The identification of pain-provoking factors should be the aim of subsequent investigations. A fu rther study with a prospective design will be necessary to answer the quest ions that remain.