Affiliations 

  • 1 Jabatan Kesihatan Negeri Sembilan
  • 2 University Malaya Medical Centre
MyJurnal

Abstract

The study objective is to examine the effects of the identified attributes (i.e. employee characteristics and ergonomics) that influences the chronic back pain disabilities acquired and benefits awarded via the recognition of workplace relatedness. As these factors are considered in work- related chronic back pain, we hypothesized that the ascertainment of work relatedness would depend on employees’ workplace conditions (poor ergonomic practices) and innate personal conditions (excellent pre-existing medical health). Two set of data was collected from a registry owned by a social security organization in 2012. Factor analysis and structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to analyze the data. As predicted, workplace conditions and employees’ pre- existing medical health status mediated occupational back pain to develop disability and monetary benefit relationships. In conclusion, the results support the importance of obtaining workplace evidence and employees’ pre- existing medical health status that produces stronger relationship in terms of the amount of benefits to be given compared to the lesser effects on disability. Both models with different samples showed consistent SEM results. The proposed model would be applicable in the heterogenous Asian setting and that occupational back pain consensus is the key element in providing effective social security protection.