As technology has developed, industrial assembly line workers have become limited in their responsibilities to simple and repeated work. For this reason, work related diseases started to develop on those workers. Many of these work related diseases ...
As technology has developed, industrial assembly line workers have become limited in their responsibilities to simple and repeated work. For this reason, work related diseases started to develop on those workers. Many of these work related diseases occur on the skeletal muscles. Skeletal muscle disability and stress has developed into urgent industrial health problems. Of the muscle skeletal disease, Lumber Pain, was shown on 50% of the workers but only 15-20% seeked doctors for treatment. Lumber pain resulted in frequent medial office visits, low productivity, and mental decline effecting normal daily life.
The benefit of alternative medicine is that is has a broad use for areas of treatment and prevention for worked related diseases addressing one's physical and and mental situation, daily life, environment, and personality. Recently, there has been active research on alternative medicine and increased interest in alternative medicine because of limitations of other unorthodox medical treatment. The main purpose in this research was to find out usage, treatment, effectiveness and satisfaction rate of alternative medicine on the age group of 20 to 30 year old workers who had lumber pain.
During 19 days from April 4, 2011 to April 22, 2011, researchers randomly selected workers from Youngdengpogu, Junggu, Seungdonggu, Kwangjingu and Gurogu Seoul to take a survey.
By researching people who have suffered lumber pain within the last year, lumber pain was present in a surprisingly high percentage of those people. 73.3% of workers answered that they suffered lumber pain within one year.
Categorizing workers by weight, over weighted and obese workers had more symptoms of lumber pain than those who had less weight or were normal weight.
In addition, workers who frequently consume alcohol showed more lumber pain than those who consume less alcohol
81.8% of workers who had worked for 6-10 years had lumber pain, which was highest percentage of all, and this number fluctuated with the varying amounts working hours. Those who worked more than 11 hours per day had more lumber pain than those who worked for 8 hours. This statistic showed useful research results.
Working position showed different comparisons in this research. Not only did workers who usually stood up during their works showed more lumber pain but also workers who's work was limited to repeated task had more lumber pain than those that had varied types of duties. Because a high percentage of workers who worked for longer hours answered that they had lumber pain every single day, there seems to be a connection between working hours and lumber pain.
The 71% of workers answered 'yes' when asked if they had ever tried alternative medicine, and only 29 answered 'no' that they did not.
When illness or pain occurred, the most used source of alternative medicine was yoga, hot pack, well-being food, and massage. When asked which illness they used alternative medicine for, lumber pain was a common reason for many workers.
Most workers said that they just endured pain. However, for medical treatment seekers, there was a higher percentage of people that used traditional medical treatment along with alternative medical treatment rather than traditional medical treatment alone.
When asked if their pain was reduced after treatment, more than half the people answered 'yes'. Most respondents answered positively when asked about their satisfaction level on a scale of 1-5 with 5 being very satisfied.
In the research, almost half of the people preferred medical treatment while the other half preferred alternative medicine. There were no negative perceptions of alternative medicine by the survey respondents of workers between the age groups of 20 to 30 years old.
Because alternative medicine does not use any chemical substances or drugs, it was very suitable for work and did not affect normal life.
Although alternative medicine and traditional medical treatment can be taken together, alternative medicine methods were not well known throughout the population. In addition, most people did not seek alternative medicine because they did not know which method to pursue.
There should be more research to upgrade and develop alternative medicine. In addition, proactive advertising is needed on the facts that alternative medicine is a proven treatment on reducing side effect and also it's effectiveness.
In order to maximize treatment, endless effort is needed to inform the public that medical treatment and alternative medicine can be used together to achieve the best results.
Key words : Low Back Pain, Prevalence,
Complementary and Alternative Therapy(CAM)