Prevention strategies and the low back in industry.

Several different approaches have been tried in industry to prevent low-back injuries. The scientific literature shows that only job-specific strength testing and ergonomic job design are partially effective in preventing low-back injuries. Job-specific strength testing is supported as a means of identifying high-risk workers who need to perform manual materials handling. However, this approach should be carefully validated for its effectiveness before it is used as a form of selection procedure. At present, ergonomic job design offers the most potential for preventing disabling low-back injuries and other musculoskeletal injuries. Quantitative and objective methods (such as NIOSH guidelines, biomechanical models, energy expenditure, and strength data) are available to analyze a given job and to determine the relative risk of an injury.