Abstract
Background: Lower back pain remains one of the most common work-related complaints of the developed and developing countries. The purpose of this study was to examine how the body mass index, duration of driving and the vehicle seat’s condition were associated with Lower back pain in Drivers/Operators of articulated vehicles and non- Drivers of articulated vehicles, in Ngqura Container Terminal, Eastern Cape.
Objectives: The objective of this study was to examine the prevalence of occupational health exposure risk factors associated with lower back pain in drivers/operators of articulated vehicles and non-drivers of articulated vehicles at the Ngqura Container Terminal, in the Eastern Cape.
Methods: A primary data analysis was obtained through a structured questionnaire and using an interview method. The data was cleaned and then entered into a software for analysis. The crude odds ratios were used to calculate adjusted odds ratios using multivariate logistic regression in SPSS. Frequencies and percentages were identified using the descriptive statistical analysis. The crude odds ratios were calculated using SPSS program. The multivariate logistic regression was used to get the adjusted odds ratios to obtain occupational risk factors associated with lower back pain. Confidence intervals were used to obtain the statistical significance within the variables. The data was then presented using figures and tables.
Results: Overall, 350 (60.4%) out of 579 participants belonged to the Drivers of articulated vehicles category. Male participants were significantly more likely to be Drivers of articulated vehicles (AOR; 95%CI). Most of the Drivers of articulated vehicles were Black African, (81.43%). Being Black African was significantly more likely to be a Drivers of articulated vehicle (AOR; 95%CI). The majority of Drivers of articulated vehicles were overweight to obese as these categories combined made up 82.86% of the body mass index category. The was a significant difference at the years of working at Ngqura Container Terminal variable between the Drivers of articulated vehicles and non-Drivers of articulated vehicles as illustrated by the p value being <0.0005. On the seat related items, none of the items were found to be significantly more likely to cause lower back pain to Drivers of articulated
2
vehicles
. With the distribution of Drivers of articulated vehicles and non-Drivers of articulated vehicles by difficulty of activities several activities were found to be significant.
Conclusion: In my study race, gender, years of driving vehicles or operating the machines, income and obesity certainly played a large role in lower back pain. As it can be seen therefore the risk factors for lower back pain are the males of coloured and the back race, working at Ngqura Container terminal for a period