Authors

• Rannisto, Satu (Valmennustalo Sarastus)

Keywords

activities of daily living, back pain, depression, health, health status, job satisfaction, pain, physical activities, physical mobility, quality of life, sick leave, sleep, smoking, symptoms

Abstract

The survey charted leg length discrepancy as a risk factor for back pain in both sitting and standing work. The connection between leg length discrepancy and back pain was investigated both by cross-sectional and by intervention design. The results from the cross-sectional design are presented in this data.

The cross-sectional part of the study examined the connection between leg length discrepancy and sick leave days caused by back pain. Employees who mainly stood at work were compared with employees who mostly sat. Employees who worked standing up worked in a butcher shop and employees who worked sitting down worked in customer service.

Leg length discrepancy was measured with a laser-based ultrasound method developed for the study, which is a non-invasive and fast method for reliably measuring limb discrepancy in standing position. Absences due to back pain, gender, and age were collected from the employer's register. In the questionnaire, the respondents were asked about their stress levels, symptoms of depression, work, smoking, and sleeping as well as their physical health and whether it inhibited their daily activities. They were also asked to evaluate their lower back and sciatica pain on the visual analogue scale (VAS).

Magnitude of lower back pain, magnitude of sciatica pain, number of days the respondent suffered from back pain, and the number of absence from work due to back pain (M50-54 in ICD-10) were chosen to be the outcome variables for the study.