The prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders among ultrasound specialists and identifying their work-related risk factors

Musculoskeletal disorders are among the most important and common occupational injuries leading to disability of employees. An increasing trend of musculoskeletal disorders among sonographer specialists has been reported in the literature. This study, therefore, set out with the aim of assessing the musculoskeletal disorders among sonographer specialists working in centers covered by Tehran University of Medical Sciences.
In this cross-sectional study all sonographer specialists of Tehran University of Medical Sciences (totally 53 specialists) were selected on census method. Customized questionnaires based on Standardized Nordic Questionnaire were used to assess musculoskeletal disorders in this community. SPSS software was exploited to data analysis. All participants were informed in terms of the study objectives and ethical issues such as confidentiality of study community were all considered.
The prevalence of WMSDs in current study was 86%. Pain and discomfort wasmore often reported in neck, shoulder and wrist, respectively. Sustained probe usage, types of patient table andchair as well as sustained shoulder abduction were the most risk factors that perceived by ultrasound specialists. Ergonomic evaluations showed that changes should be made soon. Age, experience, scanning hours per week and break duration provided the largest set of significant clusters of pain in body sections (p Since scanning is considered as the major task of sonographers, the prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders was high among participants in the present study. Ergonomics evaluations and interventions of sonographer’s workplace to allow them to remain productive are necessary.