Back Pain, Sickness Absences and Leg Length Discrepancy 2008

The survey charted leg length discrepancy as a risk factor for back pain in both sitting and standing work. The connection between leg length discrepancy and back pain was investigated both by cross-sectional and by intervention design. The results from the cross-sectional design are presented in this data. The cross-sectional part of the study examined the connection between leg length discrepancy and sick leave days caused by back pain. Employees who mainly stood at work were compared with employees who mostly sat. Employees who worked standing up worked in a butcher shop and employees who worked sitting down worked in customer service. Leg length discrepancy was measured with a laser-based ultrasound method developed for the study, which is a non-invasive and fast method for reliably measuring limb discrepancy in standing position. Absences due to back pain, gender, and age were collected from the employer's register. In the questionnaire, the respondents were asked about their stress levels, symptoms of depression, work, smoking, and sleeping as well as their physical health and whether it inhibited their daily activities. They were also asked to evaluate their lower back and sciatica pain on the visual analogue scale (VAS). Magnitude of lower back pain, magnitude of sciatica pain, number of days the respondent suffered from back pain, and the number of absence from work due to back pain (M50-54 in ICD-10) were chosen to be the outcome variables for the study.

本调查针对坐姿与站姿工作场景下的腿长差异（leg length discrepancy）作为背痛风险因素展开分析。本研究采用横断面设计（cross-sectional design）与干预设计两种方案，探究腿长差异与背痛之间的关联，本次数据集呈现的即为横断面设计部分的研究结果。该研究的横断面部分聚焦于腿长差异与背痛所致病假天数之间的关联，对比了两类雇员：主要以站姿工作的肉铺雇员，与主要以坐姿工作的客服雇员。腿长差异采用本研究自研的激光超声法进行测量，该技术为无创、快速且可在站立位可靠检测肢体长度差异的方法。背痛缺勤情况、性别与年龄数据均来源于雇主登记档案。问卷内容涵盖受访者的压力水平、抑郁症状、工作状态、吸烟与睡眠情况、身体健康状况及其对日常活动的影响程度，受访者还需采用视觉模拟评分法（Visual Analogue Scale, VAS）对下腰痛与坐骨神经痛症状进行评分。本研究选取的结局变量包括：下腰痛程度、坐骨神经痛程度、受访者背痛发作天数，以及因背痛导致的缺勤天数（对应ICD-10编码M50-54）。