Risk of subacromial shoulder disorder in airport baggage handlers: combining duration and intensity of musculoskeletal shoulder loads

Musculoskeletal shoulder-load among baggage handlers measured by combining duration and intensity based on biomechanical and epidemiological information may be a stronger predictor of subacromial shoulder disordersthanbaggage handler seniority.In 2012, a cohort of baggage handlers employed at Copenhagen Airport in 1990-2012, and a cohort of unskilledotherwise employed men answered a survey.Self-reported information on work tasks during employment in the airport in combination with work task specific biomechanically modelled forces in the shoulder joint was used to estimate shoulder-load. Exposure measures were accumulated shoulder abduction moment, accumulated shoulder compression force, accumulated supraspinatus force, and baggage handler seniority.The outcome was subacromial shoulder disorderregistered in the Danish National Patient Register.Whenanalyses were adjusted by all confounders except age,exposure variables showed close to significant associations with subacromial shoulder disorder.Results could not confirm our hypothesis that combined information on work task duration and shoulder load intensity was stronger associated with subacromial shoulder disorder than seniority.