Assessment of musculoskeletal and other health complaints in female hospital staff

Abstract

Musculoskeletal and other health complaints were investigated in a sample of 586 female hospital staff. Health complaints, including musculoskeletal pain, were assessed by the Ursin Health Inventory (UHI). Factor analyses of the UHI favoured a seven-factor solution in which musculoskeletal pain emerged as an independent factor of complaints. Other complaint factors could be labelled lower digestive, upper digestive, cardiorespiratory, allergy, cold/influenza and headache. Factor analyses of the extended version of the Nordic Questionnaire (NQ-EV), which focuses specifically on musculoskeletal pain from nine body areas, favoured a three-factor solution in which complaints from the upper back, low back and extremities emerged as the independent factors. Product-moment coefficients of correlation between factor-based sum scores in the two survey measures stated that the UHI factor ‘musculoskeletal pain’ and the NQ-EV factor ‘upper back’ were significantly correlated. This indicated an orientation of the UHI ‘musculoskeletal pain’ factor to pain in the upper part of the back. Only very moderate coefficients of correlation emerged between the NQ-EV factor scores and the remaining UHI scores. The results support the assumption that musculoskeletal complaints are not closely related to other types of health complaints, and that musculoskeletal complaints among female hospital staff should be assessed with separate items for upper back (neck/shoulders), low back and the extremities.