Clinical trial NCT01671267: Implementation of Physical Exercise at the Workplace (IRMA06) - Slaughterhouse Workers
Official title: Implementation of Physical Exercise at the Workplace (IRMA06) - Slaughterhouse Workers
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: COMPLETED
Phase: NA
Conditions: Musculoskeletal Disorders
Lead sponsor: National Research Centre for the Working Environment, Denmark
Sponsor class: OTHER_GOV
First posted: 2012-08-23
Enrollment: 66
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 18
Maximum age (years): 67
Standard ages: ADULT
OLDER_ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: yes
Allocation: RANDOMIZED
Intervention model: PARALLEL
Primary purpose: TREATMENT

Brief summary: The prevalence of pain in the shoulder, arm and hand is high among slaughterhouse workers, allegedly due to the substantial load of these body regions during work. Work disability is a common consequence of these pains. Lowering the physical exposure through ergonomic intervention may be a strategy to reduce the workload. An alternative strategy could be to increase the physical capacity through strength training of the shoulder-, arm- and hand-muscles. This study investigates the effect of two contrasting interventions, i.e. load reduction (ergonomic intervention) versus training of physical capacity (strength training) on pain and work disability in slaughterhouse workers.

The main hypothesis is that strength training intervention for 10 weeks compared with ergonomic intervention results in reduced pain of the shoulder, arm and hand.


Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* Slaughterhouse worker
* the pain should have lasted at least 3 months
* pain intensity during the last three months of \>= 3 (scale 0-10) in the shoulder, elbow or hand
* the pain should be frequent (at least 3 days per week)

Exclusion Criteria:

* life threatening disease
* pregnancy

Primary outcomes:
measure: Pain intensity
timeFrame: change from baseline to week 10
Secondary outcomes:
measure: DASH
timeFrame: change from baseline to week 10
Other outcomes:
measure: PPT
timeFrame: change from baseline to week 10
measure: WAI
timeFrame: change from baseline to week 10
measure: Total tenderness score
timeFrame: change from baseline to week 10
Locations:
city: Copenhagen
country: Denmark
facility: National Research Centre for the Working Environment
Study officials:
affiliation: National Research Centre for the Working Environment, Denmark
name: Lars L Andersen, PhD
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
References:
citation: Sundstrup E, Jakobsen MD, Brandt M, Jay K, Aagaard P, Andersen LL. Strength Training Improves Fatigue Resistance and Self-Rated Health in Workers with Chronic Pain: A Randomized Controlled Trial. Biomed Res Int. 2016;2016:4137918. doi: 10.1155/2016/4137918. Epub 2016 Oct 17.
citation: Sundstrup E, Jakobsen MD, Andersen CH, Jay K, Persson R, Aagaard P, Andersen LL. Effect of two contrasting interventions on upper limb chronic pain and disability: a randomized controlled trial. Pain Physician. 2014 Mar-Apr;17(2):145-54.
citation: Sundstrup E, Jakobsen MD, Andersen CH, Jay K, Persson R, Aagaard P, Andersen LL. Participatory ergonomic intervention versus strength training on chronic pain and work disability in slaughterhouse workers: study protocol for a single-blind, randomized controlled trial. BMC Musculoskelet Disord. 2013 Feb 21;14:67. doi: 10.1186/1471-2474-14-67.