A Pooled Longitudinal Analysis of Workplace Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

描述（由申请人提供）：工作场所腕管综合征的汇总纵向分析腕管综合征仍然是工作人员残疾的主要来源，也是雇主和保险公司的主要费用。不幸的是，工作场所暴露于生物力学因素和腕管综合征之间的关联的研究一直是不确定的，由于在设计，暴露和结果确定，和统计能力的限制。在2001年至2008年期间，七个研究小组对美国生产工人进行了协调的多年前瞻性研究，并收集了详细的受试者水平上肢生物力学暴露信息，并进行了后续症状评估，体格检查和神经传导测量。拟议的研究将汇集这些前瞻性研究的数据，以创建一个大型数据库（N = 3573），涵盖一系列职业和行业的职业暴露、人口统计学、协变量和结局指标。除了允许精确估计不同工作人群中CTS的发病率外，拟议的研究还将精确量化生物力学风险因素（例如，力，重复，应变指数，手活动水平）和腕管综合征的发病率，同时控制重要的协变量（例如，年龄、性别、心理社会因素、BMI）。这项研究还将评估在基线时患有腕管综合征的人中，工作场所和个人因素与手部残疾随后变化之间的关系。建议的分析结果将为雇主，雇员，公共卫生机构和职业健康调查人员提供定量估计CTS和职业生物力学因素之间的关联，以更有效地指导工作场所的健康和安全预防计划。 公共卫生相关性：叙述腕管综合征是蓝领工人手部残疾的重要原因。这项研究的目的是通过合并七项前瞻性研究的数据，创建迄今为止最大的工作场所腕管综合征数据库。所有七项研究都收集了详细的工作场所活动信息。这个大型数据库将使我们能够详细检查特定类型的手部活动与患腕管综合征的机会之间的关系。这项研究可以回答这样一个问题：手的移动速度是否比工作任务中施加的握力更重要或更不重要。这些信息是雇主，雇员和健康和安全人员所需要的，以设计更安全的工作场所，以减少患腕管综合症的机会。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): A Pooled Longitudinal Analysis of Workplace Carpal Tunnel Syndrome Carpal tunnel syndrome continues to be a major source of disability among working persons and a major expense to employers and insurers. Unfortunately, studies of associations between workplace exposures to biomechanical factors and carpal tunnel syndrome have been inconclusive as a result of limitations in design, exposure and outcome ascertainment, and statistical power. Between 2001 and 2008, seven research groups conducted coordinated, multi-year, prospective studies of US production workers and collected detailed subject-level upper-extremity biomechanical exposure information with follow-up symptom assessment, physical examination, and nerve conduction measures. The proposed study will pool the data from these prospective studies to create a large database (N = 3573) of occupational exposure, demographic, covariate and outcome measures across a range of occupations and industries. In addition to allowing for precise estimates of the incidence of CTS among members of a diverse working population, the proposed study will quantify with precision exposure-response relationships between biomechanical risk factors (e.g., force, repetition, Strain Index, Hand Activity Level) and incidence of carpal tunnel syndrome while controlling for important covariates (e.g., age, gender, psychosocial factors, BMI). The study will also evaluate, among those with carpal tunnel syndrome at baseline, the relationship between workplace and personal factors and subsequent changes in hand disability. The results of the proposed analyses will provide employers, employees, public-health agencies and occupational health investigators with quantitative estimates of the associations between CTS and occupational biomechanical factors in order to more effectively guide workplace health and safety prevention programs. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Narrative Carpal tunnel syndrome is an important cause of hand disability among blue collar workers. The purpose of this study is to create the largest database to-date on workplace carpal tunnel syndrome by merging together data from seven prospective studies. Detailed workplace activity information has already been collected by all seven studies. This large database will allow us to examine, in detail, the relationships between specific types of hand activity and the chance for developing carpal tunnel syndrome. The study can answer the question of whether how fast the hand moves is more or less important for the development of carpal tunnel syndrome than the amount of grip force applied during a work task. This information is needed by employers, employees, and health and safety personnel to design safer workplaces in order to reduce the chance of developing carpal tunnel syndrome.