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.