Risk Factors Associated with the Prevalence of Upper and Lower Back Pain in Male Underground Coal Miners in Punjab, Pakistan

Madiha Ijaz, Muhammad Akram, Sajid Rashid Ahmad, Kamran Mirza, Falaq Ali Nadeem and Steven M. Thygerson
Additional contact information
Madiha Ijaz: College of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of the Punjab, Lahore 54590, Pakistan
Muhammad Akram: College of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of the Punjab, Lahore 54590, Pakistan
Sajid Rashid Ahmad: College of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of the Punjab, Lahore 54590, Pakistan
Kamran Mirza: Institute of Geology, University of the Punjab, Lahore 54590, Pakistan
Falaq Ali Nadeem: College of Statistical and Actuarial Sciences, University of the Punjab, Lahore 54590, Pakistan
Steven M. Thygerson: Department of Public Health, College of Life Sciences, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT 84602, USA

IJERPH, 2020, vol. 17, issue 11, 1-14

Abstract: There is not enough data available on occupational health and safety issues of underground coal miners in Pakistan. This study focuses on spinal disorders in association with personal and occupational factors. The Nordic Musculoskeletal Questionnaire was used for a cross-sectional study of 260 workers of 20 mines located in four districts of Punjab, Pakistan. Regression models were created for upper back pain and lower back pain of workers whose mean age is 19.8 years (±SD 1.47). Results identify the coal cutting as the most harmful work with odds ratios (ORs) 13.06 (95% confidence interval (CI) 13.7–21.5) for lower back pain and 11.2 (95% CI 3.5–19.4) for upper back pain in participants. Those with greater years of work experience had higher odds of upper back pain (2.4, 95% CI 1.4–3.5) and lower back pain (3.3, 95% CI 1.1–4.4). Number of repetitions (mean value 25.85/minute with ±SD 9.48) are also significant for spinal disorder with ORs of 4.3 (95% CI 3.2–7.4) for lower back and 1.3 (95% CI 1.0–2.4) for upper back. Many other occupational and personal factors are positively associated with the back pain in underground coal mines workers, requiring immediate ergonomic intervention.

Keywords: coal mining; lower and upper back pain; male workers; Nordic musculoskeletal questionnaire; Odd ratio; spinal disorder; ergonomics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/11/4102/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/11/4102/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:11:p:4102-:d:368956

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().