A study on the prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders among health care workers at a private medical centre

Abstract

A study was conducted among healthcare workers performing manual handling tasks at a private medical center (PMC) in Selangor to determine the prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs). A total of 103 workers of the PMC were selected through simple random sampling which comprise of 32 respondents for administrative group and another 71 respondents for operative group of Malaysian citizen, not pregnant and never been involved with any type of accident that involved musculoskeletal system. Modified questionnaire was used to gather the information of respondents. In this study, Body Parts Symptoms Survey (BPSS) form was used to determine which of 12 body parts were exposed to the MSDs risks that can be associated with manual handling tasks. For assessment of manual handling, a posture-based analysis system for Rapid Entire Body Assessment (REBA) responsive to musculoskeletal risks in various tasks was used. Lower back region indicated the highest prevalence (21.4%) of MSDs among workers in PMC followed by shoulder (14.6%) and neck (13.6%). For assessment of manual handling, there was significant difference of REBA score between administrative and operational workers (Z = 3.501, p = 0.001). Manual handling was significantly associated with MSDs that involved all body parts for operative workers while for administrative workers, manual handling was significantly associated with shoulder (r = 0.376, p = 0.034), upper back (r = 0.473, p = 0.010), elbow (r = 0.397, p = 0.024), lower back (r = 0.337, p = 0.050) and arm (r = 0.478, p = 0.016). In conclusion, the prevalence of MSDs among healthcare workers is high at lower back region and there was significant association between manual handling and MSDs among them.