Do Technical Aids for Patient Handling Prevent Musculoskeletal Complaints in Health Care Workers?—A Systematic Review of Intervention Studies

Janice Hegewald, Wera Berge, Philipp Heinrich, Ronny Staudte, Alice Freiberg, Julia Scharfe, Maria Girbig, Albert Nienhaus and Andreas Seidler
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Janice Hegewald: Institute and Policlinic of Occupational and Social Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Technische Universität Dresden, Fetscherstr. 74, 01307 Dresden, Germany
Wera Berge: Institute and Policlinic of Occupational and Social Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Technische Universität Dresden, Fetscherstr. 74, 01307 Dresden, Germany
Philipp Heinrich: Institute and Policlinic of Occupational and Social Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Technische Universität Dresden, Fetscherstr. 74, 01307 Dresden, Germany
Ronny Staudte: Institute and Policlinic of Occupational and Social Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Technische Universität Dresden, Fetscherstr. 74, 01307 Dresden, Germany
Alice Freiberg: Institute and Policlinic of Occupational and Social Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Technische Universität Dresden, Fetscherstr. 74, 01307 Dresden, Germany
Julia Scharfe: Institute and Policlinic of Occupational and Social Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Technische Universität Dresden, Fetscherstr. 74, 01307 Dresden, Germany
Maria Girbig: Institute and Policlinic of Occupational and Social Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Technische Universität Dresden, Fetscherstr. 74, 01307 Dresden, Germany
Albert Nienhaus: Institute for Health Service Research in Dermatology and Nursing, University Clinics Hamburg Eppendorf, Martinistr. 52, 20246 Hamburg, Germany
Andreas Seidler: Institute and Policlinic of Occupational and Social Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Technische Universität Dresden, Fetscherstr. 74, 01307 Dresden, Germany

IJERPH, 2018, vol. 15, issue 3, 1-19

Abstract: The physical load ensuing from the repositioning and moving of patients puts health care workers at risk of musculoskeletal complaints. Technical equipment developed to aid with patient handling should reduce physical strain and workload; however, the efficacy of these aids in preventing musculoskeletal disorders and complaints is still unclear. A systematic review of controlled intervention studies was conducted to examine if the risk of musculoskeletal complaints and disorders is reduced by technical patient handling equipment. MEDLINE ® /PubMed ® , EMBASE ® , Allied and Complementary Medicine Database (AMED), and Cumulative Index of Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL ® ) were searched using terms for nursing, caregiving, technical aids, musculoskeletal injuries, and complaints. Randomized controlled trials and controlled before-after studies of interventions including technical patient handling equipment were included. The titles and abstracts of 9554 publications and 97 full-texts were screened by two reviewers. The qualitative synthesis included one randomized controlled trial (RCT) and ten controlled before-after studies. A meta-analysis of four studies resulted in a pooled risk ratio for musculoskeletal injury claims (post-intervention) of 0.78 (95% confidence interval 0.68–0.90). Overall, the methodological quality of the studies was poor and the results often based on administrative injury claim data, introducing potential selection bias. Interventions with technical patient handling aids appear to prevent musculoskeletal complaints, but the certainty of the evidence according to GRADE approach ranged from low to very low.

Keywords: moving and lifting patients; musculoskeletal diseases; low back pain (LBP); occupational medicine; equipment and supplies; hospital; ergonomics; systematic review (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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