Work-related musculoskeletal disorders among health care professionals: A cross-sectional assessment of risk factors in a tertiary hospital, India.

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Abstract

Work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSDs) are responsible for morbidity in many working populations. Apart from lowering the quality of workers' life and reducing the productivity, WMSDs are the most expensive form of work disability, attributing to about 40% of all costs toward the treatment of work-related injuries. WMSDs are considered to be multifactorials that are caused due to the interactions between various risk factors, which result in conditions that vary across different occupations. Although health care profession is known to be at a high risk for WMSDs, it is one of the least-studied occupations. Most of the previous studies on WMSDs among health care workers were limited to any one of the professional groups such as nurses, physical therapists, dentists, and others. Hence this study was aimed at looking into the WMSDs affecting five different health care professionals working in a tertiary care hospital. It compared the prevalence and distribution of WMSDs among the five groups, evaluated the multiple risk factors that contribute to the development of WMSDs, and identified the high-risk group.

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Psychosocial factors at work and musculoskeletal disease.

Paulien Bongers, C de Winter, M A Kompier … (1993)

The objective of this review is to establish whether the epidemiologic literature presents evidence of an association between psychosocial work factors and musculoskeletal disease. In a hypothetical model it is suggested that individual characteristics and stress symptoms can modify this relationship. The reviewed studies do not present conclusive evidence due to high correlations between psychosocial factors and physical load and to difficulties in measuring dependent and independent variables. Nevertheless, it is concluded that monotonous work, high perceived work load, and time pressure are related to musculoskeletal symptoms. The data also suggest that low control on the job and lack of social support by colleagues are positively associated with musculoskeletal disease. Perceived stress may be an intermediary in this process. In addition, stress symptoms are often associated with musculoskeletal disease, and some studies indicate that stress symptoms contribute to the development of this disease.

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Low back pain: prevalence and associated risk factors among hospital staff.

Sultan Kav, Azize Karahan, N Dogan … (2009)

This paper is a report of a study conducted to describe the prevalence and risk factors for lower back pain amongst a variety of Turkish hospital workers including nurses, physicians, physical therapists, technicians, secretaries and hospital aides. Hospital workers experience more low back pain than many other groups, the incidence varies among countries. Work activities involving bending, twisting, frequent heavy lifting, awkward static posture and psychological stress are regarded as causal factors for many back injuries. A 44-item questionnaire was completed by 1600 employees in six hospitals associated with one Turkish university using a cross-sectional survey design. Data were collected over nine months from December 2005 to August 2006 and analysed using Chi square and multivariate logistic regression techniques. Most respondents (65.8%) had experienced low back pain, with 61.3% reporting an occurrence within the last 12 months. The highest prevalence was reported by nurses (77.1%) and the lowest amongst secretaries (54.1%) and hospital aides (53.5%). In the majority of cases (78.3%), low back pain began after respondents started working in the hospital, 33.3% of respondents seeking medical care for 'moderate' low back pain while 53.8% (n = 143) had been diagnosed with a herniated lumbar disc. Age, female gender, smoking, occupation, perceived work stress and heavy lifting were statistically significant risk-factors when multivariate logistic regression techniques were conducted (P < 0.05). Preventive measures should be taken to reduce the risk of lower back pain, such as arranging proper rest periods, educational programmes to teach the proper use of body mechanics and smoking cessation programmes.

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Epidemiological study to investigate potential interaction between physical and psychosocial factors at work that may increase the risk of symptoms of musculoskeletal disorder of the neck and upper limb.

I Vlachonikolis, P Buckle, Jason J. Devereux (2002)

To investigate potential interactions between physical and psychosocial risk factors in the workplace that may be associated with symptoms of musculoskeletal disorder of the neck and upper limb. 891 of 1514 manual handlers, delivery drivers, technicians, customer services computer operators, and general office staff reported on physical and psychosocial working conditions and symptoms of neck and upper limb disorders using a self administered questionnaire (59% return rate). Of the 869 valid questionnaire respondents, 564 workers were classified in to one of four exposure groups: high physical and high psychosocial, high physical and low psychosocial, low physical and high psychosocial, and low physical and low psychosocial. Low physical and low psychosocial was used as an internal reference group. The exposure criteria were derived from the existing epidemiological literature and models for physical and psychosocial work factors. The frequency and amplitude of lifting and the duration spent sitting while experiencing vibration were used as physical exposure criteria. Ordinal values of mental demands, job control, and social support with managers and coworkers were used as psychosocial exposure criteria. In the multivariate analyses, the highest and significant increase in risk was found in the high physical and high psychosocial exposure group for symptoms of hand or wrist and upper limb disorders after adjusting for years at the job, age, and sex. A potential interaction effect was found for the symptoms of the hand or wrist and upper limb disorders but not for the neck symptoms. This study showed that workers highly exposed to both physical and psychosocial workplace risk factors were more likely to report symptoms of musculoskeletal disorders than workers highly exposed to one or the other. The results suggest an interaction between physical and psychosocial risk factors in the workplace that increased the risk of reporting symptoms in the upper limbs. Psychosocial risk factors at work were more important when exposure to physical risk factors at work were high than when physical exposure was low. Ergonomic intervention strategies that aim to minimise the risks of work related musculoskeletal disorders of the upper limb should not only focus on physical work factors but also psychosocial work factors.