High quantitative job demands and low coworker support as risk factors forneck pain - Results of a prospective cohort study

Study Design. A 3-year prospective cohort study among 1334 workers was cond ucted. Objective. To determine whether the work-related psychosocial factors of qu antitative job demands, conflicting job demands, skill discretion, decision authority, supervisor support, coworker support, and job security, are ris k factors for neck pain. Summary of Background Data. Among the various risk factors for neck pain, w ork-related psychosocial factors play a major role. Previous studies on ris k factors for neck pain often had a cross-sectional design, and did hot tak e both physical and psychosocial factors into account.. Methods. At baseline, data on work-related psychosocial factors were collec ted by means of a questionnaire. During the 3-year follow-up period, data o n the occurrence of neck pain were collected by means of postal questionnai res. Individuals without neck pain at baseline were selected for the analys es. Cox regression analysis was applied to examine the relation between the work-related psychosocial factors and the cumulative incidence of neck pai n. Adjustments were made for various physical factors and individual charac teristics. Results. The analysis included 977 patients. Altogether, 141 workers (14.4% ) reported that they had experienced neck pain at least once during the 3-y ear follow-up period. The relation of neck pain to high quantitative job de mands (relative risk [RR], 2.14; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.28-3.58) a nd low coworker support (RR, 2.43; 95% CI, 1.11-5.29) was statistically sig nificant. An increased risk was found for low decision authority in relatio n to neck pain (RR, 1.60; 95% CI, 0.74-3.45), but this relation was not sta tistically significant. Conclusions. High quantitative job demands and low coworker support are ind ependent risk factors for neck pain. There are indications that another ris k factor for neck pain is low decision authority.