Level of education, lifestyle, and morbidity in two groups of white collar workers.

Study Objective: The aim was to examine the relationship between level of education, lifestyle, and morbidity in two groups of male white collar workers, and to determine whether any differences found could be related to objective differences in working conditions.

Design: The study was a survey of a random sample of commercial travellers and a sample of men with sedentary occupations, representing two different groups of white collar workers. Survey interviews were conducted during the annual compulsory medical examination.

Low-back pain in commercial travelers.

The role of occupational environment in the occurrence of low-back pain was analyzed for 1719 commercial travelers (1376 men and 343 women). At the beginning of the study (T0) the group was interviewed to determine current lifestyle and occupational factors associated with low-back pain during the previous 12 months. Twelve months later (at T1), a subsample of 1118 persons (893 men, 225 women) was reinterviewed to study the association between the incidence of low-back pain during the year of follow-up and the risk factors at T0.