치과위생사의 요통 발생에 관한 연구

Occurrence of Low Back Pains for Dental Hygienists

The purpose of this study,was to find out health status, characteristics related to working conditions, occurrence of low back pain and its related factors among dental hygienists working in dental clinics, and, thus, to provide basic information necessary to set up some plans for preventing the occurrence of low back pains and improving working conditions for dental hygienists. The data were collected from 310 dental hygienists working at dental clinics in Pusan and Kyungnam area, including Masan, Changwon, Jinhae and Jinju, with a self-administered questionnaire and were analyzed finally for 295 records with SPSS for Windows(7.52K) program. The results were as follows : Working condition was considered to be fair by 562% of dental hygienists were thought to threaten their health in the dental clinics. About seventy percent of dental hygienists worked over ten hours a day and 72.8% were standing while working over 7 hours, 65% considered working hours too long. Health status was thought be more than average for 82.3% while more than half perceived certain degree of stress frequently. The rate of complaining low back pains among dental hygienists was 87.8% with pains more than medium level for 39.3%. The variables significantly related to the degree of low back pains were height, uncomfortable postures, type of working postures and the height of working table, while some variables including height, hours of working on the feet, the presence of hazardous work environment, uncomfortable postures, the presence of hazardous works, the amount of working hours, type of working postures and work-associated stresses, were significantly related to the number of symptoms for low back pains. Multiple regression analysis showed that occurrence of low back pains was significantly influenced by 5 factors such as subjective status of health, work-related stresses, the degree of perception to work environment, the degree of perception to the amount of working hours and age. In conclusion, it might be necessary to manage working conditions effectively by reducing working hours, making good postures while working and removing stressful conditions in order to reduce risk factors for the occurrence of low back pains among dental hygienists. Therefore good working postures, assignment of appropriate rest time and some programs for early detection, care and education of low back pains should be provided for the dental hygienists.