Perceived Risk of Low-Back Injury Among Four Occupations.

Objective: This study aimed to assess the perception of risk of low-back injury of individuals from four groups: office/administrative employees, dental workers (dentists/dental hygienists), firefighters, and undergraduate students.

Background: The concept of worker's perception of injury risk has been used to set safe material-handling limits and to determine compliance with health and safety regulations but has not been used to identify perceptual differences among occupations or potential deficiencies in risk awareness.

Method: Participants (N = 232) were presented with eight images of different low-back postures/tasks and were required to rate their perceived magnitude of low-back risk on a scale from 0 (no risk) to 10 (extreme risk).

Results: Office/administrative and dental workers rated postures higher than firefighters and students. Individuals from all groups perceived kyphotic postures as having a higher low-back risk than lordotic postures. Further, office and dental workers, compared to firefighters and students, perceived sitting postures to have a relatively higher level of risk, likely due to these postures being typically adopted by these individuals at work. No relationship between previous low-back pain and risk rating was observed in this study.

Conclusion: Low-back injury risk perception varies between occupations/groups and may be a result of different exposures.

Application: The results of this study can potentially be used to implement occupation-specific training programs to ensure that the scientific research regarding low-back injuries is being properly conveyed to employees across all sectors.