ArticleBMJ open2019
Exposure to heavy physical work from early to later adulthood and primary healthcare visits due to musculoskeletal diseases in midlife: a register linked study.
Article in BMJ open, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 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
5 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 7 citations in OpenAlex.
- The Genetic Causal Association between Educational Attainment and Risk of 12 Common Musculoskeletal Disorders: A Two-Sample Mendelian Randomization.Orthopaedic surgery · 2023Pooled it
- Change in physical workload and the risk of work disability due to musculoskeletal disorders: a register-based study of 1 703 935 workers in Sweden.Occupational and environmental medicine · 2026Article
- Quantifying the population burden of musculoskeletal disorders, including impact on sickness absence: analysis of national Scottish data.Rheumatology advances in practice · 2022Article
- Musculoskeletal pain among offshore wind industry workers: a cross-sectional study.International archives of occupational and environmental health · 2020Article
- Back disorder incidence and occupation in Denmark: a cross-sectional register-based study.European spine journal : official publication of the European Spine Society, the European Spinal Deformity Society, and the European Section of the Cervical Spine Research Society · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
10 authors at 5 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectivesTo examine whether exposure to heavy physical work from early to later adulthood is associated with primary healthcare visits due to cause-specific musculoskeletal diseases in midlife.
designProspective cohort study.
settingNationally representative Young Finns Study cohort, Finland.
participants1056 participants of the Young Finns Study cohort. EXPOSURE MEASURE: Physical work exposure was surveyed in early (18-24 years old, 1986 or 1989) and later adulthood (2007 and 2011), and it was categorised as: 'no exposure', 'early exposure only', 'later exposure only' and 'early and later exposure'. PRIMARY AND SECONDARY OUTCOME MEASURES: Visits due to any musculoskeletal disease and separately due to spine disorders, and upper extremity disorders were followed up from national primary healthcare register from the date of the third survey in 2011 until 2014.
resultsPrevalence of any musculoskeletal disease during the follow-up was 20%, that for spine disorders 10% and that for upper extremity disorders 5%. Those with physically heavy work in early adulthood only had an increased risk of any musculoskeletal disease (risk ratio (RR) 1.55, 95% CI 1.05 to 2.28) after adjustment for age, sex, smoking, body mass index, physical activity and parental occupational class. Later exposure only was associated with visits due to any musculoskeletal disease (RR 1.46, 95% CI 1.01 to 2.12) and spine disorders (RR 2.40, 95% CI 1.41 to 4.06). Early and later exposure was associated with all three outcomes: RR 1.99 (95% CI 1.44 to 2.77) for any musculoskeletal disease, RR 2.43 (95% CI 1.42 to 4.14) for spine disorders and RR 3.97 (95% CI 1.86 to 8.46) for upper extremity disorders.
conclusionsTo reduce burden of musculoskeletal diseases, preventive actions to reduce exposure to or mitigate the consequences of physically heavy work throughout the work career are needed.
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