ArticleSpine2013
A new pre-employment functional capacity evaluation predicts longer-term risk of musculoskeletal injury in healthy workers: a prospective cohort study.
Article in Spine, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
6 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 25 citations in OpenAlex.
- Pre-employment examinations for preventing injury, disease and sick leave in workers.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2016Pooled it
- Injury trends, costs, and lost time in an Australian meat processing facility: a retrospective analysis.BMC public health · 2026Article
- A comparison of historical versus proposed physical employment standards for flight paramedics performing helicopter winch rescue.Work (Reading, Mass.) · 2024Article
- Feature Detection and Biomechanical Analysis to Objectively Identify High Exposure Movement Strategies When Performing the EPIC Lift Capacity test.Journal of occupational rehabilitation · 2021Article
- Pre-placement examinations for newly recruited health care support staff.Hong Kong journal of occupational therapy : HKJOT · 2020Article
- Functional Capacity Evaluation Research: Report from the Second International Functional Capacity Evaluation Research Meeting.Journal of occupational rehabilitation · 2016Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
STUDY
designProspective cohort study.
objectiveTo determine if a job-specific pre-employment functional assessment (PEFA) predicts musculoskeletal injury risk in healthy mineworkers. SUMMARY OF BACKGROUND DATA: Traditional methods of pre-employment screening, including radiography and medical screenings, are not valid predictors of occupational musculoskeletal injury risk. Short-form job-specific functional capacity evaluations are increasing in popularity, despite limited evidence of their ability to predict injury risk in healthy workers.
methodsParticipants were recruited from an Australian coal mine between 2002 and 2009 as part of the hiring process. At baseline, participants were screened with the JobFit System PEFA, and classified as PEFA 1 if they met job demands and PEFA>1, if not. Males who completed the PEFA and were employed were included. Injury data from company records were coded for body part, mechanism, and severity. The relationship between PEFA classification and time to first injury was analyzed using Cox proportional hazards regression with adjustments for department and post hoc stratification for time (0-1.3 yr, 1.3-6 yr).
resultsOf the 600 participants (median age, 37 yr, range, 17.0-62.6 yr), 427 scored PEFA 1. One hundred ninety-six sprain/strain injuries were reported by 121 workers, including 35 back injuries from manual handling. Significant differences between PEFA groups were found in time to first injury for all injury types during the long term (any injury: adjusted hazard ratio [HR] = 2.3, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.4-3.9; manual handling injury: HR = 3.3, CI = 1.6-7.2; any back injury: HR = 3.3, CI = 1.6-6.6; back injuries from manual handling HR = 5.8, CI = 2.0-16.7), but not during the short term. An area under the receiver operator curve value of 0.73 (CI = 0.61-0.86) demonstrated acceptable predictive ability for back injuries from manual handling during the long term.
conclusionJobFit System PEFAs predict musculoskeletal injury risk in healthy mineworkers after 1.3 years of employment. Future research should assess whether use of these assessments as part of a holistic risk management program can decrease workplace musculoskeletal injuries.
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