Exploring musculoskeletal pain among Italian olive pickers: A cross-sectional investigation into prevalence, attitudes, expectations, and beliefs.
Benedetto Giardulli, Simone Battista, Lucia Grazia Sansone and 3 others
PMID 39973733WHAT IT FOUND
84.8% of 127 Italian olive pickers reported musculoskeletal pain in the last year, mainly lower back, shoulders and neck.
Many avoided movement and expected manual treatment, while 44% did nothing to prevent pain.
Key findings
0184.8% of participants reported musculoskeletal pain in the last year, with lumbar spine, shoulders and cervical spine most affected.
0244% did nothing to prevent musculoskeletal pain, and 94% never attended a preventive physical activity course.
03Participants expected health professionals to educate them on correct movements (62%) and provide manual treatment (46%).
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTsWhat it means for OTs
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What it does not show
Only 127 of 512 invited olive pickers responded (25%), so results may not represent all olive pickers. The design was cross-sectional, so it cannot show that olive picking caused the pain. The paper did not collect prior injuries or other causes, so pain may not be solely work-related. Participants with pain may have been more likely to respond. Fear-avoidance behaviour was inferred from movement avoidance and fear, not measured with a specific tool. Pain was not separated into acute and chronic, and specific rheumatic or musculoskeletal diseases were not examined. The sample was 99 men and 28 women, limited to olive pickers in Imperia, a province of Liguria.
Declared interests
The authors received no financial support and declared no potential conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read the 84.8% one-year pain rate as proof that olive picking caused the pain. The study was cross-sectional and did not collect prior injury data, so other causes cannot be excluded.