Abstract
BackgroundOne of the occupations that suffer from musculoskeletal disorders (MSD) is the teaching profession. Although teachers are known to have a variety of health and safety issues, few studies have actually been published that relate to somatic health problems of teachers, especially studies conducted in Malaysia. From this viewpoint, it is clearly important to investigate psychosocial factors, and MSD with depression as mediator among school teachers.MethodsThe study aimed to determine the incidence of MSD for school teachers in 15 primary schools in Kuala Lumpur during a 6-month period. Secondly, the study also sought to examine the relationships between psychosocial factors, depression and MSD among teachers. Thirdly, the study aimed to explore depression as mediator. The hypothesis addressed by this cross-sectional study was that depression would prove to be a mediator for the psychosocial factors affecting MSD.ResultsThe incidence of MSD during the previous 6 months was 80.1% (95% CI: 75.8–84.2%), with 80.5% of female and 77.5% of male teachers reporting symptomatic pain during that period. There were significant relationships between psychosocial factors, depression, and MSD. The results indicated that in relation to psychosocial factors, depression (r = − 0.25, p < .01) and musculoskeletal disorder (r = −.17, p < .01) were both negative. In addition, depression was positively related to musculoskeletal disorder (r = .30, p < .01). Furthermore, depression appeared to have a partially mediating effect on the relationship between psychosocial factors and MSD.ConclusionsThe findings in this study demonstrate that psychosocial factors and depression are significant predictors of MSD among teachers. Recognizing the relationship between these variables will help in arranging, planning or actualizing preventive intervention programs for teachers with the hope of lessening the incidence of MSD. This study also provides awareness for teachers and the Malaysian Ministry of Education regarding the issues of MSD in the workplace.
Highlights
One of the occupations that suffer from musculoskeletal disorders (MSD) is the teaching profession
This value indicates that 6% of the variability in depression can be explained by psychosocial factor whereas psychosocial factor and depression explained 10% of the variability in MSD
Parallels can be drawn to the literature review: the findings from the present study support the idea that psychosocial factors and depression are significant predictors of MSD among teachers
Summary
One of the occupations that suffer from musculoskeletal disorders (MSD) is the teaching profession. Teachers are known to have a variety of health and safety issues, few studies have been published that relate to somatic health problems of teachers, especially studies conducted in Malaysia From this viewpoint, it is clearly important to investigate psychosocial factors, and MSD with depression as mediator among school teachers. Strong evidence supported the association of workplace psychosocial factors with MSD [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16] This relationship is due to the stressful working condition of teachers, including very. About 9% of Malaysians were reported having major depression and
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