The effect of occupational whole-body vibration on standing balance: A systematic review

Adverse health effects from exposure to occupational whole-body vibration (WBV) are common among drivers. in particular some researchers consider that there is kinaesthetic and balance disturbance from WBV exposure in the workplace and this might be one of the aetiological factors responsible for occupational low back pain in drivers. The purpose of this study was to undertake a critical review of the literature to determine whether exposure to seated occupational WBV can affect standing balance performance in an actual or simulated occupational environment. Specific keywords and MeSH terms for three major areas included WBV, balance and occupation. These were used to conduct a systematic search of the following databases; Pub Med, EMBASE (Ovid), Med line (Ovid), CINAHL (EBSCO), Academic Search Complete (ASC), AMED, Scopus, Web of Science, Science Direct, Proquest, Cochrane library(OVID), IEEExplore and Pro Quest Dissertations and thesis, Google Scholar, World Cat and related conference proceedings. Five articles met the inclusion criteria and were assessed for quality. Two were field studies conducted on actual vehicles (a long haul freight truck and a bulldozer), while the other three were laboratory studies simulating the characteristics of the following vehicles; long-haul-dump vehicle, underground mine shuttle car, and helicopter. The systematic review scored the methodological quality of the included articles with an average and standard deviation of 76 +/- 12.3% (range 59- 93%) indicative of high quality. Three of the five studies (two field and one laboratory) found evidence for seated WBV decreasing standing balance performance while two laboratory studies did not find such effects. Thus there is modest evidence to suggest there is a decrease in standing balance performance following exposure to seated occupational WBV. Relevance to industry: This systematic review suggests that balance deficits may exist immediately following exposure to occupational seated WBV and may predispose driver/operator to low back injury during manual material handling tasks immediately post driving. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.