Abstract
The Standardized Nordic Questionnaire Applied to Workers Exposed to Hand-Arm Vibration: Orawan KAEWBOONCHOO, et al. Department of Hygiene, School of Medicine, Wakayama Medical University-The standardized Nordic questionnaire (SNQ) is not yet widely used in Japan. This paper describes the possibility whether the SNQ, translated into Japanese, can be applied to workers exposed to hand-arm vibration. The musculoskeletal symptoms of 40 chain saw operators (CS) in private forests and 40 agematched bush cleaner operators (BC) in the public service sector were assessed by the SNQ and the Japanese questionnaire (JQ). Both the SNQ and the JQ showed that CS had a higher prevalence of symptoms than BC. By the SNQ, there were significant differences in the prevalence of musculoskeletal symptom in the elbows, upper back and knees. By the JQ, CS had significantly higher prevalence of pain in the shoulders and elbows than BC. These results show the SNQ also fits the musculoskeletal symptoms and clearly differentiates between the prevalences in the two groups. The SNQ enables us to identify the severity, the duration, the treatment and the disability, but does not include items related to finger numbness and finger blanching. For that reason some JQ items should be a lied to workers exposed to hand-arm vibration.
