Abstract
Prevalence of low back symptoms was investigated in workers who have been employed in a large-scale chemical industry enterprise. Questionnaires were sent to 2014 workers, of which departments included transportation, sales, construction, design, manufacturing, and so on. Eighty-five items questioned consisted of past history of low back pain, present physical status and symptoms, work environment, work posture, and job types. 1898 replies were analyzed in this study. Among these, three handred eighty five (20.3%) already experienced low back pain at the time of the investigation. There was a strong tendency that the older, the taller in the height, and the higher in the BMI workers had the more prevalent in low back pain. There are higher prevalence of low back pain in the departments of manufacturing, construction and transportation. Prevalence of low back symptoms was found to be higher in workers with frequent poor work posture, work in cold work place, and lifting of heavy objects.
