A Study of Risk Factors related to Back Pain in Bus Drivers

The purpose of this study were to determine causes of low back pain in bus drivers who usually work in prolonged sitting position and to find the relationship of back pain with general characteristics and work environmental characteristics, stress symptoms, to com맹re lordosis angle of habitual driving posture and resting posture in low back pain group and non-low back pain group, and to use this result as a basis for improvement of work environment and comprehensive rehabilitative management of low back pain. Ninety-eight bus drivers were selected from the membership of an urban transit union in Seoul. These informations were collected from May 1, 1997 to May 25, 1997 by means of structured questionnaires and X-ray findings. These data were analyzed by test, t-test, logistic regression using SAS. The major results were as follows: 1. Of the respondents, 66.3% of bus drivers were found to be experiencing back pain. 2. Of the respondents of low back pain groups, 78.5% reported that major cause of low back pain was due to prolonged sitting. 3. The group with experiences of frequent or continuous vibration had more low back pain (p degrees in low back pain group, degrees in non-low back pain and averaged lordosis angle of resting sitting posture was degrees in low back pain, degrees in non-low back pain group but the difference in mean lordosis angles of two groups was not statistically significant. The results of this study indicate that professional drivers developed chronicity of low back pain due to unfit seat, poor habitual posture and stress from vibration or other risk factors. Therefore, there is need to improve work environment, i.e. enough resting, to set a seat to support lumbar spine properly and to provide comprehensive rehabilitation program including early diagnosis, proper treatment and education for self help management.