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Modest associations between self-reported physical workload and neck trouble: a population-based twin control study

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Abstract

Objectives

To investigate the relationship between self-reported physical workload and neck trouble (NT) in twins. Additionally, to explore whether the relationship between physical workload and NT is influenced by genetic factors.

Methods

A twin control study was performed within a population-based, cross-sectional questionnaire study using 3,208 monozygotic (MZ) and same-sexed dizygotic (DZ) twins aged 19–70. Twin pairs discordant for self-reported NT during the past year (“Any NT”) were included. Self-reported physical workload in four categories was used as exposure (“sitting,” “sitting and walking,” “light physical,” and “heavy physical” work). Paired analyses including conditional logistic regression were made for all participants and for each sex, and MZ and DZ pairs separately.

Results

No marked associations between physical workload and NT were seen. A moderate risk elevation in “heavy physical” work was seen in DZ men (odds ratio 2.3, 95 % confidence intervals 1.3–4.0), but not in MZ men or the MZ or DZ women.

Conclusions

The findings in some degree supported that “heavy physical” work is a determinant of NT, perhaps only in men, but hardly of any greater importance. The different results between DZ and MZ men suggest that genetic factors influence the relationship between physical workload and NT.

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Acknowledgments

The authors gratefully acknowledge Assistant Professor Dr Lars Korsholm, PhD, Department of Demographics and Biostatistics, University of Southern Denmark, for statistical advice. Likewise, we gratefully thank senior data analyst Axel Skytthe and Secretary Jytte Duerlund for the preparation of the questionnaire data. The neck questions in the questionnaire were funded by the Foundation for Chiropractic Research and Postgraduate Education.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Køge Hospital, Køge, Denmark

    Jonas Winkel Holm

  2. Clinical Locomotion Science, Institute of Sports Science and Clinical Biomechanics, University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark

    Jan Hartvigsen

  3. Department of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Odense University Hospital, Odense, Denmark

    Svend Lings

  4. The Danish Twin Registry, Institute of Public Health, University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark

    Kirsten Ohm Kyvik

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  1. Jonas Winkel Holm
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  4. Kirsten Ohm Kyvik
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Correspondence to Jonas Winkel Holm.

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Holm, J.W., Hartvigsen, J., Lings, S. et al. Modest associations between self-reported physical workload and neck trouble: a population-based twin control study. Int Arch Occup Environ Health 86, 223–231 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00420-012-0755-7

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