Occhealth Bulletin
11 April 2009
Thoracic Spine Pain prevalence and factors
Category: Reviews
Examinetics has been looking into an article by Australian researcher Andrew Briggs and co-workers (2009) into the prevalence and associated factors for thoracic spine pain (TSP) in the adult working population. The condition can impact on the quality of life for a worker, financially for employers and on the economy.
Thoracic spine pain is defined as ‘pain experienced in the upper or middle back between vertebrae T1-T12 across the posterior aspect of the trunk’. Compared with pain associated with the neck or lower back, TSP is not well documented and hence may be less well recognized and understood. This is mainly due to the fact that symptoms of ‘back’ pain on presentation to a physician may involve more than one area of the back. Briggs and colleagues carried out a literature search to identify the prevalence and associated factors for TSP.
The researchers completed a systemic search of nine databases including Medline, Biomed Central and EMBASE. The searches revealed 1725 citations for assessment. Duplications and unsuitable papers were excluded. This left 52 papers for evaluation which described 65 cohorts covering occupations such as manual laborers, office workers, health professionals, manufacturing and industrial workers, drivers performing artists and military personnel.
The results showed that prevalence varied with occupational group and time period. One year prevalence was ‘the most commonly reported recall period (74% of cohorts)’ and so used to compare between occupational groups. Most occupational groups had medians around 30% although the range varied from 3.0-55%. TSP appeared to be associated with a broad range of factors including general work (eg. high work load), physical work (eg. high physical stress) and psychosocial work-related (eg. high mental pressure). The researchers concluded that TSP may be a significant health problem and that further prospective research is warranted.
REFERENCE:
Briggs, AM., Bragge, P., Smith, AJ., Govil, D. and Straker, LM. (online first 4/1/2009) Prevalence and associated factors for thoracic spine pain in the adult working population: a literature review. Journal of Occupational Health.