Prevalence of Foot and Ankle Pain among Housekeeping Staffs – A Cross Sectional Study

Abstract

Background: Any kind of pain or uneasiness in the ankle or foot is referred as ankle and foot pain. Thehousekeeping workers habitually suffer from various musculoskeletal disorders due to many of the taskswhich are repetitive in nature. Foot and ankle pain is the most significant problem faced in daily workin wide range of population among hospital cleaning staff. Thus the aim of this study is to determine theprevalence of foot and ankle pain among housekeeping staffs. Objectives: To assess the prevalence of footand ankle pain among housekeeping staffs. Study Design: A cross-sectional study. Method: Ninety six(n=96) participants who had an experience in housekeeping department for at least 6 months were includedin the study. The participants were selected through convenience sampling technique. Each participants BMIwas calculated. Standardized Foot and Ankle Outcome Questionnaire developed by American Academy ofOrthopaedic Surgeons was used to collect the data purely on voluntarily basis. Result: Out of the (n=96)participants, 89 were females (92.7%) and 7 were males (7.3%). Majority of the housekeeping staffs haddifficulty to walk on uneven surface with the prevalence of 64.5 %. This study concluded that the prevalenceof foot and ankle pain that interfered with their normal life was 23.9%.Conclusion: A relationship wasevidenced with mild symptoms of foot and ankle pain and reduced health related quality of life associatedwith uneven surfaces in the working environment