Prevalence of Work-Related Musculoskeletal Disorders in CISF Staff of Delhi Metro, India (2019)

Musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) cause muscle pain or injuries from sudden or sustained contact with repetitive motion, force, vibration, or wrong postural movement. A high prevalence of MSDs has been reported amongst police staff. Still, the prevalence of MSDs in Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) metro Personnel has not been documented in literature to date. Aim/Goal of the study: To report the prevalence of MSDs in Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) metro Personnel.

A total of 401 participants were recruited for this cross-sectional study from CISF Delhi headquarters and hostels by convenience sampling. The standardized Nordic Musculoskeletal Questionnaire for investigating work-related musculoskeletal symptoms in working populations was used in this study for data collection. Data were tabulated in Microsoft Office Excel 2010 to obtain the frequency, mean, standard deviation, and percentage.

The point prevalence of low back pain was reported highest, with 19.09 % in males, and amongst females, 17.39% reported pain in one/ both shoulders. Period prevalence for the last 7 days indicated that 17.79% of males and 13.04% of females reported low back pain. The 12-month prevalence of MSDs was highest for the low back region in both genders.

It was concluded from the study that a wide array of work-related MSDs is prevalent amongst the CISF staff of Delhi Metro, with the highest prevalent area of pain being the lower back region.