Occupational retraining may reduce worker injuries

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - An occupational training program supported by employers and workers' trade unions helped increase the number of floor and carpet layers using knee-sparing work methods, and appears to reduce floor layers' risk for knee problems, researchers report.

Similar collaborative strategies between employees and trade unions may help limit occupational injuries in other construction trades, Dr. L. K. Jensen and colleagues from Region Hospital Skive, Denmark, suggest in the journal Occupational and Environmental Medicine.

Noting that only 10 percent of Danish floor and carpet layers had adopted the use of new tools and methods that allowed them to perform some of their duties while standing, rather than kneeling, the investigators approached industry trade unions and the employers' association with information about the continued risk for knee injury when using standard floor laying methods.

The investigators developed a hands-on training program, taught by industry experts, on using the new work tools and methods, and further enticed workers to enroll in these two-day training sessions by providing them with free tools.

Follow-up questionnaires showed that more than a third of the retrained workers continued to use the new methods three months and two years later, the investigators report.

By contrast, only 16 percent of the floor layers who did not participate in retraining reported using the newer work methods.

These findings suggest that retrained workers were more likely to use and continue to use the new methods, the researchers note. However, the new work methods did not appear to filter from the retrained workers to other floor layers.

The investigators also found that workers using the new techniques for one year or longer had half the risk for knee complaints compared with those using the methods for less than one year.

Furthermore, workers who implemented the new methods prior to developing knee problems had the greatest reduction in knee complaints.

The active participation of the trade unions and employers' association helped encourage improved working methods in this population of floor layers, but the investigators suggest that further occupational training initiatives are needed to reach greater numbers of workers.

SOURCE: Occupational and Environmental Medicine, January 2008