Distribution of Number, Location of Pain and Comorbidities, and Determinants of Work Limitations among Firefighters

The unique demands offirefighting results in acute, recurrent, or chronic pain complications. We aimed to describethe percentage distribution of number and location of painful sites among FFs and determine whether work limitations differedbased on the number or location of painful sites, age, and/or sex.Methods. About 325firefighters completed a work limitationquestionnaire (WLQ-26) and a checklist to indicate painful regions of the body using either a paper format or an online survey.A one-way ANOVA was employed to analyze the transformed work limitation scores; this was a two-sided test with asignificance level of<0.05, to determine if work limitations differed amongfirefighters based on the number or location ofpainful sites, age, and/or sex.Results. The data analyzed consisted of 325 (men = 216,women = 109) FFs in total. The percentagedistribution of the number of painful sites in our study cohort was 43% no pain, 17% one painful site, 19% two painful sites,and 21% three or more painful sites. The percentage distribution of the locations of painful sites was 43% no pain, 41% spine,9% lower extremity, and 7% upper extremity. An estimated 31% of FFs (n= 102) reported non-MSK comorbidities with 23%(n=76) reporting at least one non-MSK comorbidity and 8% (n=26) reported having two or more comorbidities.FFs > 45yearsof age experienced more physical work limitations thanFFs≤45years(mean difference: 0.74/10; 95% CI .19-1.29;p=0:008).Conclusions. The majority offirefighters reported having at least one painful site and indicated the spine as the mostcommon painful location. Age, the number of painful sites, and location of pain were identified as a potential contributor tophysical/mental and work output limitations.