WORK RELATED MUSCULOSKELETAL DISORDERS AMONG EGYPTAIN PHYSICAL THERAPISTS AND YEARS OF EXPERIENCE

Abstract

Objective: To survey the relationship between works related musculoskeletal disorders and physical therapists years of work in Egypt. Methods: The study was conducted on 835 physical therapists. They were assigned into four groups; according to their duration of work, their mean age ± SD was 28.57 ± 5.31 years ranged between 21 and 51 years. They were working in educational, general, private, rehabilitation hospitals and private clinics in Egypt, to assess musculoskeletal disorders due to work in the last 12 months. The participants were asked to answer Modified Nordic questionnaire. Results: The form sent to 1000 physical therapists the response rate for the questionnaire was 83.5%. The twelve-month prevalence of back compliant due to work of the study groups was 97.6% with 95% confidence interval (CI) of 96.32- 98.44%. Life time prevalence of upper back pain was 27.18% with 95% CI of 24.27-30.3%.; and that of low back pain was 89.82% with 95% CI of 87.85-91.69%. There was a significant association between back disorders and duration of work (p = 0.0001).The highest low back pain life time prevalence of 95.74% was among physiotherapists with 7-10 years of work. The twelve-month prevalence of back compliant was 100% among physiotherapists with 4-6 and 7-10 of work. Conclusion: There was a high prevalence of work related back pain among Egyptian physiotherapists. Physiotherapists more than one  year of working are at high risk of developing back disorders. Work modification and preventive measures should be considered to minimize the risk of injury.