The carpal tunnel syndrome is one of the most common peripheral nerve entrapment syndromes and one of whose causes is occupational exposure. But there has been no data on how occupational exposure causes carpal tunnel syndrome in Korea. So a case-control study was done to find the risk factors of carpal tunnel syndrome and to evaluate what the occupational exposure hazards in Korea.
The cases were composed of 50 female patients who were diagnosed by needle electromyography and nerve conduction study as carpal tunnel syndrome in 3 general hospitals such as Anam and Kuro Hospitals of Korea University and Borame Hospital. The controls were 179 mothers who did not have symptoms related to carpal tunnel syndrome. A trained nurse interviewed cases obtaining information about risk factors by telephone, but the information of controls were gathered by a self-administered method using a structured questionnaire.
The results were as follows ;
1. 55.1 % of the cases had a history of working and 37.0% of controls worked, so the odds ratio was 2.21(95% confidence interval was 1.17 to 4.15).
2. 16.0% of the cases had diabetes mellitus and 0.6% of controls had it, so the odds ratio was 29.7(95% confidence interval was 7.0 to 125.1). 8.0% of the cases had rheumatoid arthritis and 1.8 % of controls had it, so the odds ratio was 5.22 (95 % confidence interval was 1.3 to 21.0).
3. 8.0% of the cases had a history of taking oral contraceptives and 1.7% of controls took it, so the odds ratio was 4.99(95% confidence interval was 1.45 to 20.2).
4. Logistic regression analysis was done to control the confounding effect of age and to evaluate the amount of effects of risk factors. The important risk factors were quetelet index (kg/m-´) (p=0.0065), diabetes mellitus(p=0.0108), history of taking oral contrueptives(p=0.0684), and a history of having employment(p=0.0881 ) in order of effect power.
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