The Development of a Risk Assessment Model for Carpal Tunnel Syndrome (CTS): A Case-Control Study

Abstract

A risk assessment model for CTS was developed from a case-control study consisting of two case- and one control groups: (1) 25 non-work related CTS patients (NW-CTS), (2) 22 work-related CTS patients (W-CTS), and (3) 50 healthy workers (HEALTHY) having had no CTS symptom history. Personal susceptibility, psychosocial stress at work, and ergonomic hazards were surveyed by using a questionnaire directed toward CTS (reliability of each scale ≤7). Three logistic regression models were developed and cross-validated for (1) W-CTS/HEALTHY, (2) NW-CTS/HEALTHY, and (3) CTS/HEALTHY, resulting in 89%, 84%, and 88% of correct classification performance, respectively. While the first two models include personal and ergonomic factors, the last model does only personal factors. This suggests that injury causation of NW-CTS patients be attributable mainly to their ‘high’ personal susceptibility to CTS rather than exposure to adverse work conditions, while for W-CTS patients work exposure and/or personal susceptibility cause their injury.

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