Carpal Tunnel Syndrome as Sentinel for Harmful Hand Activities at Work: A Nationwide Danish Cohort Study.

OBJECTIVE

Evaluate incidence rates (IRs) of carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) as sentinels to identify job groups with high hand-wrist exposures.

METHODS

A nationwide register-based cohort study of all born in Denmark. During follow-up 2010 to 2013, we identified first-time CTS diagnoses. We established job groups, calculated sex-specific age-standardized IRs (SIRs) per job group. We linked occupational codes with a job exposure matrix, calculated mean hand load estimate per job group, and plotted hand load against the SIRs.

RESULTS

We followed 1,171,580 men and 1,137,854 women for 4,046,851 and 3,994,987 person-years; identified 4405 cases among men, 7858 among women; obtained crude IRs of 10.9 and 19.7 per 10,000 person-years. For both sexes, there was a positive association between SIRs and hand load.

CONCLUSIONS

Higher SIRs pointed to job groups with higher hand load. Elevated SIRs of CTS may serve as sentinels of harmful hand activities.