The relation between job and field of work with spine discopathies in male military personnel

Introduction. discopathy (deformity and malfunction of intervertebral disk) is one of the most prevalent sources of pain of vertebral column. Different risk factors are involved in developing discopathy, one of them are job and field of work. According to published articles discopathy is more prevalent in military personnel due to type of work and their mission. In this article we determine relation between job and field of work with spine discopathies in male military personnel admitted in the Baghit-Allah hospital.Materials and Methods. This descriptive cross sectional study performed in 1999-2007 in Baghit-Allah hospital. Five hundred seventy six male military personnel admitted because of discopathy entered the study. We used a previously valid questioner with close ended questions to determine demographic data, type of lesion and field of work. Analyze using descriptive methods were performed after gathering the data.Results. Mean age, height, weight and work experience was 45.6, 170, 76.4 and 21.7 respectively. Discopathy in lumbar, cervical, thoracic spine was seen in 390(67.8%), 153(26.6%), 33(5.6%) patients respectively. Single discopathy was present in 504(87.6%) cases, 72(12.4) cases have discopathy in more than one region. Out of 576 patients, 250(43.3%) field of work was combat, 121(21%) engineering, 59(10.3%) service and 146(25.3%) logistic. A significant association between region of discopathy and field of work was present (p=0.028). T12-L1 discopathy was associated with field of work (p=0.013). In combat field 36% of patients had T12-L1 discopathy, 25% in engineering field, 23.3% in logistic and 15.7% in service. Surgery was performed in 192 cases, physical therapy and rehabilitation was performed for 288 cases.Conclusion. Discopathy have a higher prevalence in military personnel. There is a significant association between region of discopathy and field of work. We recommend recurrent assessment of personnel and set them in appropriate field best fit with their physical situation, continuous training and correction of body posture in work, considering the ergonomic rules and regular exercise for military personnel.