Epidemiological aspects of back pain: the incidence and prevalence of back pain in nurses compared to the general population.

Two studies using retrospective questionnaires were conducted to obtain epidemiological information from nursing personnel (n = 1134) and among an age- and gender-matched cross-section of the general population (n = 315). The point and annual prevalence of back pain did not differ between the two sample groups. Nurses demonstrated a greater annual incidence of back pain (14.7%, compared to 11.5% in non-nurses). The point prevalence of back pain increased with age in both sample groups. Nurses considered patient-handling tasks instrumental in the onset of back pain symptoms. Comparison of results with those obtained from a similar study published in 1983 indicated an increase of almost 40% in the prevalence of back pain symptoms in nurses, although the linearity of the rise was not ascertained. The implementation of guidelines on the manual handling of loads has led to revised training procedures and these may have influenced the epidemiological findings.