Abstract
Musculoskeletal pain is one of the most common occupational problems in the industrial society and its prevalence is potentially associated with mental disorders. To estimate the prevalence of work-related musculoskeletal pain and its association with occurrence of common mental disorders among employees of a poultry processing company in Southern Brazil. Cross-sectional study conducted in 2010 with 1,103 employees aged 18 to 52 years old. Musculoskeletal pain was investigated based on a human figure adapted from the Standardized Nordic Questionnaire. We considered reported work-related pain in any part of the body in the past 12 months. Occurrence of common mental disorders was assessed- by the Self-Reporting Questionnaire (SRQ-20). Crude and adjusted prevalence ratios (PR) and corresponding 95% confidence interval (95%CI) were obtained by Poisson regression with robust variance. The prevalence of work-related musculoskeletal pain was 40.3% (95%CI 37.4-43.2) for the total sample, 46.8% (95%CI 43.2-50.5) for women and 27.8% (95%CI 23.2-32.3) for men. The prevalence of musculoskeletal pain was twice higher for the participants with common mental disorders compared to those without this condition (PR=2.27; 95%CI 1.99-2.58). This effect remained significant after adjustment for sociodemographic, behavioral, health-related and occupational variables. The results of the present study point to the relevance of preventive measures to promote the mental and physical health of workers in order to reduce or minimize the occurrence of pain.
Highlights
Musculoskeletal disorders are considered a considerable health problem in present-day society for representing the main cause of functional incapacity[1,2]
Musculoskeletal pain is characterized by the occurrence of several concomitant symptoms, such as paresthesia, heaviness and physical fatigue, which characteristics vary as a function of the location, etiology, intensity and frequency of pain[4]
In regard to the main association investigated in the present study, unadjusted analysis showed that the prevalence of musculoskeletal pain was twice higher among the participants with common mental disorders compared to the ones without this condition (PR=2.27; 95% confidence interval (95%CI) 1.99–2.58)
Summary
Musculoskeletal disorders are considered a considerable health problem in present-day society for representing the main cause of functional incapacity[1,2]. These are the conditions that most contribute to occurrence of daily pain among workers, which in addition to biological and psychological harm, is a cause of incapacity for work[3]. Musculoskeletal pain tends to vary as a function of the job characteristics[6], and occurrence is potentially associated with mechanical or psychosocial factors[7]. Psychosocial factors mainly comprise high job demands, lack of autonomy and accelerated rhythm of production[9,10]. In addition to limitations and incapacity for work, pain might influence and impair the activities of daily living and quality of life of workers[3]
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