TY - JOUR
T1 - Carpal Tunnel Syndrome as Sentinel for Harmful Hand Activities at Work
T2 - A Nationwide Danish Cohort Study
AU - Tabatabaeifar, Sorosh
AU - Svendsen, Susanne Wulff
AU - Frost, Poul
PY - 2020/5
Y1 - 2020/5
N2 - OBJECTIVE: Evaluate incidence rates (IRs) of carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) as sentinels to identify job groups with high hand-wrist exposures.METHODS: A nationwide register-based cohort study of all born in Denmark. During follow-up 2010 to 2013, we identified first-time CTS diagnoses. We established job groups, calculated sex-specific age-standardized IRs (SIRs) per job group. We linked occupational codes with a job exposure matrix, calculated mean hand load estimate per job group, and plotted hand load against the SIRs.RESULTS: We followed 1,171,580 men and 1,137,854 women for 4,046,851 and 3,994,987 person-years; identified 4405 cases among men, 7858 among women; obtained crude IRs of 10.9 and 19.7 per 10,000 person-years. For both sexes, there was a positive association between SIRs and hand load.CONCLUSIONS: Higher SIRs pointed to job groups with higher hand load. Elevated SIRs of CTS may serve as sentinels of harmful hand activities.
AB - OBJECTIVE: Evaluate incidence rates (IRs) of carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) as sentinels to identify job groups with high hand-wrist exposures.METHODS: A nationwide register-based cohort study of all born in Denmark. During follow-up 2010 to 2013, we identified first-time CTS diagnoses. We established job groups, calculated sex-specific age-standardized IRs (SIRs) per job group. We linked occupational codes with a job exposure matrix, calculated mean hand load estimate per job group, and plotted hand load against the SIRs.RESULTS: We followed 1,171,580 men and 1,137,854 women for 4,046,851 and 3,994,987 person-years; identified 4405 cases among men, 7858 among women; obtained crude IRs of 10.9 and 19.7 per 10,000 person-years. For both sexes, there was a positive association between SIRs and hand load.CONCLUSIONS: Higher SIRs pointed to job groups with higher hand load. Elevated SIRs of CTS may serve as sentinels of harmful hand activities.
KW - Diabetes
KW - epidemiological surveillance
KW - hand load
KW - job exposure matrix
KW - occupational exposures
KW - register study
KW - upper extremity
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85084693432&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1097/JOM.0000000000001852
DO - 10.1097/JOM.0000000000001852
M3 - Journal article
C2 - 32167999
SN - 1076-2752
VL - 62
SP - 375
EP - 382
JO - Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine
JF - Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine
IS - 5
ER -