Occupational exposure to whole-body vibration and neck pain in the Swedish general population

Figures & data

Table 1. Descriptive characteristics of the study participants.

		Men				Women
		Neck pain		References		Neck pain		References
Variable	Categories	N	%	N	%	N	%	N	%
Participants	–	269	11.8	2,003	88.2	536	20.2	2,122	79.8
Body mass index (kg/m²)	BMI <18.5	0	0.0	10	0.5	11	2.1	22	1.1
	18.5 ≤ BMI <25	82	31.1	721	36.6	215	41.5	985	48.0
	25 ≤ BMI ≤30	127	48.1	906	45.9	168	32.4	703	34.3
	BMI >30	55	20.8	335	17.0	124	23.9	340	16.6
Smoking	Yes	10	3.7	57	2.9	33	6.3	84	4.0
	No	258	96.3	1,934	97.1	495	93.8	2,025	96.0
Mental stress	Quite a lot/very much	66	25.5	231	11.9	195	38.2	352	17.6
	None/very little/some	193	74.5	1,718	88.1	315	61.8	1,644	82.4
Whole-body vibration exposure	None	149	63.4	1,467	80.8	446	96.3	1,739	97.6
	One tenth of the time	43	18.3	193	10.6	7	1.5	24	1.3
	One quarter of the time	16	6.8	56	3.1	1	0.2	7	0.4
	Half the time	6	2.6	40	2.2	3	0.6	4	0.2
	Three quarters of the time	11	4.7	26	1.4	4	0.9	2	0.1
	Almost always	10	4.3	33	1.8	2	0.4	6	0.3
Biomechanical exposures (one day per week or more)	Heavy lifting	90	38.7	462	25.4	94	20.6	187	10.5
	Forward-bent postures	87	37.6	420	23.2	149	32.6	355	20.1
	Twisted postures	86	37.3	385	21.2	135	29.8	319	18.0
	Sitting	153	66.6	1,183	65.6	336	73.5	1,217	69.1

The numerical sum of each variable is affected by missing data and valid column percentage are presented.

Table 2. Spearman’s rank correlation coefficients between biomechanical exposure variables.

	Whole-body vibration
Heavy lifting	0.42 (0.39–0.44)	Heavy lifting
Forward-bent postures	0.31 (0.28–0.34)	0.66 (0.64–0.69)	Forward-bent postures
Twisted postures	0.34 (0.31–0.37)	0.63 (0.61–0.66)	0.78 (0.76–0.80)	Twisted postures
Sitting	−0.06 (−0.09–−0.03)	−0.09 (−0.12–−0.06)	−0.05 (−0.08–−0.02)	−0.04 (−0.01–−0.07)

All correlations were statistically significant at the 0.05 level and ninety-five percent confidence intervals are presented in parentheses.

Figure 1. Exposure-response graphs for the association between occupational exposure to whole-body vibration and neck pain, for men and women together (A), as well as men (B) and women (C) separately.

Three separate line graphs showing varying point estimates with increasing exposure to whole-body vibration.

Table 3. Logistic regression for occupational exposure to whole body vibration in relation to reporting neck pain.

	Men and women				Men				Women
	Cases	References	Crude	Adjusted	Cases	References	Crude	Adjusted	Cases	References	Crude	Adjusted
Whole-body vibration	N (%)	N (%)	OR (95% CI)	OR (95% CI)	N (%)	N (%)	OR (95% CI)	OR (95% CI)	N (%)	N (%)	OR (95% CI)	OR (95% CI)
Never	595 (85.2)	3,206 (89.1)	Reference	Reference	149 (63.4)	1,467 (80.8)	Reference	Reference	446 (96.3)	1,739 (97.6)	Reference	Reference
One tenth to one quarter of the time	67 (9.6)	280 (7.8)	1.29 (0.97–1.71)	1.57 (1.12–2.21)^a	59 (25.1)	249 (13.7)	2.33 (1.68–3.25)	1.80 (1.21–2.68)^b	8 (1.7)	31 (1.7)	1.01 (0.46–2.20)	0.73 (0.30–1.75)^b
Half the time or more	36 (5.2)	111 (3.1)	1.75 (1.19–2.57)	1.91 (1.22–3.00)^a	27 (11.5)	99 (5.5)	2.69 (1.70–4.24)	1.98 (1.18–3.35)^b	9 (1.9)	12 (0.7)	2.92 (1.23–6.98)	1.99 (0.69–5.76)^b

OR: odds ratio; 95% CI: ninety-five percent confidence interval.

Bold values were statistically significant at the 0.05 level.

^aAdjusted for age, gender, body mass index, smoking, heavy lifting, forward-bent postures, twisted postures, sitting, and mental stress.

^bAdjusted for age, body mass index, smoking, heavy lifting, forward-bent postures, twisted postures, sitting, and mental stress.

Table 4. Sensitivity analyses on logistic regression for occupational exposure to whole body vibration in relation to reporting neck pain (men and women).

	I. Original analyses (N = 5,017)^Table Footnotea	II. Subjects working according to occupational title (N = 3,843)^Table Footnotea	III. Subjects of working age (24–65 years) (N = 3,301)^Table Footnotea
Whole-body vibration	OR (95% CI)	OR (95% CI)	OR (95% CI)
Never	Reference	Reference	Reference
One tenth to one quarter of the time	1.57 (1.12–2.21)	1.50 (1.03–2.17)	1.71 (1.16–2.52)
Half the time or more	1.91 (1.22–3.00)	1.95 (1.20–3.18)	1.97 (1.19–3.26)

OR: odds ratio; 95% CI: ninety-five percent confidence interval.

Bold values were statistically significant at the 0.05 level.

^aAdjusted for age, gender, body mass index, smoking, heavy lifting, forward-bent postures, twisted postures, sitting, and mental stress.

Data availability statement

The dataset used during the current study can be made available upon reasonable request to the corresponding author.