Table 4.
Relative risk of arm pain or complaints as prevalence ratio (PR) with a 95% confidence interval (95% CI) in the unadjusted and fully adjusted Model #5
| Exposure of interest and covariates | Categories / Unit | Unadjusted PR (95% CI) for arm pain (Model #1) | Adjusted PR (95% CI) for arm pain (Model #5) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Manual handling operations | Often | 2.773 (2.545–3.020) | 1.728 (1.552–1.923) |
| Sometimes | 1.501 (1.323–1.703) | 1.162 (1.015–1.330) | |
| Rarely | 1.111 (0.956–1.291) | 0.996 (0.855–1.159) | |
| Never (ref.) | 1 (ref.) | 1 (ref.) | |
| Manual lifting of heavy loads | Often | 1.590 (1.420–1.781) | |
| Sometimes | 1.205 (1.063–1.366) | ||
| Rarely | 1.063 (0.951–1.190) | ||
| Never (ref.) | 1 (ref.) | ||
| Overhead work | Often | 1.296 (1.166–1.440) | |
| Rarely (ref.) | 1 (ref.) | ||
| Cold; heat; wet humidity; draught | Often | 1.657 (1.500–1.830) | |
| Sometimes | 1.297 (1.166–1.442) | ||
| Rarely | 1.048 (0.925–1.188) | ||
| Never (ref.) | 1 (ref.) | ||
| Age | Per year | 1.020 (1.016–1.023) | |
| Gender | Women / men (ref.) | 1.458 (1.357–1.567) | |
| Actual weekly working hours | Per hour | 0.987 (0.981–0.992) | |
| Psychosocial workload index (Kroll 2011) [26] | Per index-point | 1.011 (1.008–1.014) |
The following confounder variables were included in the fully adjusted model: gender; manual lifting of heavy loads; overhead work; climate factors; age; actual weekly working hours; and an index for psychosocial workload based on Kroll (2011) [26]. The regression models include N = 14,299 subjects (complete case analysis)
ref. Reference group, PR Prevalence ratio, 95% CI 95% confidence interval