Prevalence of Work-Related Repetitive Stress Injuries amongst the Health Care Workers in Large Tertiary Care Hospital

Abstract

Aims: To investigate the prevalence of work-related repetitive stress injuries amongst the healthcare professionals in large tertiary care hospital Materials & Methods:  The study was conducted on 42 healthcare professionals (22 males and 20 females. The participants of the age range between 18 to 65 years.  A cross-sectional survey was conducted using a validated research instrument questionnaire consisting of 52 questions divided into multiple parts. Descriptive statistics were used to explain the demographic characteristics and information regarding the prevalence of work-related musculoskeletal work disorders of the respondents. This study was conducted at teaching hospital of Maharishi Markandeshwar University, Mullana, Haryana, India in different department between November, 2018 and April, 2019. Results: A total of the 42 respondents were returned and properly filled questionnaires. Out of total 42 respondents, 5(11.9%) of the health care workers did not have any work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WRMSD).  It is reported that overall 52.3% of the respondents were male and 47.7% were female. It has several strata such as four radiologist, six medical physicians/general physicians; four physiotherapists; seven dentists; nine radiographers; four laboratory technologists; eight nurses respectively. Amongst the health professional workers, dentists were the most prevalence of occurring work related musculoskeletal disorder followed by radiographer, physiotherapist,  radiologist, laboratory technologist, medical physician, and nurse. However, neck pain being the most common affected body region where 5 dentists were recorded. Subsequently, neck pain account to 40.4% amongst the health care workers followed by shoulder pain 23.8%, hand pain 11.9%, lower back pain 7.2% and wrist pain 4.8%. Conclusion: Based on our study, the finding demonstrated the top three most prevalence occurring musculoskeletal disorder amongst health professional are dentist, radiographer and physiotherapist. Larger sample size would be required in order show an empirical evidence.