Research Plus

Patient handling

A systematic literature review fails to find evidence to support an independent causal link between workplace manual handling or assisting patients and low back pain (LBP); however, it remains possible that some patient-assisting tasks (such as ambulating). may contribute to it. The review identified 32 relevant studies (published up to 2008) covering a range of occupations (24 studies included nurses). Rather than showing a causal link, there is strong evidence for no association between the studied activities and LBP.

The Spine Journal 2010; 10(7): 639–651.

Tags evidence based practice manual handling

Occupational Health at Work August/September 2010 (vol. 07/2) pp38