Abstract
Background: This study documented the prevalence of work related musculoskeletal pain of University of Kwa- Zulu Natal staff members who operate a computer for a minimum of 5 hours daily. Method: Subjects completed a self-report musculoskeletal pain questionnaire, which gathered their demographical and work related musculoskeletal pain over the last 12 months. The following descriptive statistics mode, mean, frequency, percentages and inferential statistics, chi-square (p< 0.05) were employed to analyse the data. Results: One hundred and two (68.00%) of the cohort complained of musculoskeletal pain within the last 12 months (X2 (1, N = 150) = 1.03E-05, p<0.0001). The most prevalent anatomical sites of musculoskeletal pain were; lumbar vertebrae (30.27%), shoulder (24.42%), cervical and thoracic vertebrae (22.80%) (X2 (2, N = 102) = 6.65E- 47, p<0.0001). Conclusion: University of Kwa-Zulu Natal staff members complained of a high prevalence of musculoskeletal lumbar, shoulder, cervical and thoracic pain.
Highlights
Technological advancements have revolutionized office work making tasks easier, they pose new problems of a different nature [1,2]
The results will be discussed in the following order; anthropometry and prevalence of work related musculoskeletal pain
One hundred and fifty University of Kwa-Zulu Natal (UKZN) staff members voluntarily participated in the study
Summary
Technological advancements have revolutionized office work making tasks easier, they pose new problems of a different nature (one such problem being work related musculoskeletal disorders) [1,2]. The most vulnerable anatomical site of work related musculoskeletal pain is the vertebral column [1,2,3]. Long term computer use has been identified as a significant risk factor predisposing the operator to musculoskeletal complaints because of the flexed, constrained cervical, thoracic and lumbar vertebrae and protracted shoulder postures [3,4]. Risk factors for the development of work related musculoskeletal vertebral pain include frequent bending, twisting, lifting, prolonged static sitting and standing postures as well as unsound sitting posture [7,8]. This study documented the prevalence of work related musculoskeletal pain of University of KwaZulu Natal staff members who operate a computer for a minimum of 5 hours daily
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