Prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders risk factors and ergonomic assessment of posture among senior students of Rehabilitation School of Shiraz University: a cross-sectional study

The current study aimed to estimate the prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders and evaluate the risk of work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSDs) in senior students at the Rehabilitation School of Shiraz University. Fifty-three senior physical and occupational therapy students with an average age of 22-42 years participated in this cross-sectional study. The Nordic Musculoskeletal Questionnaire was used to evaluate work-related musculoskeletal disorders, and postural analysis was performed using Rapid Entire Body Assessment (REBA). In this study, a high prevalence of musculoskeletal pain in the lower back, hand, neck, and shoulder regions was observed. Approximately 47% of the students reported having experienced lower back pain in the past 12 months, and this disability was the most common disorder (23%) among the study population. The results of sub-group analysis based on sex showed the lower back to be the body region with the highest prevalence of pain. Based on the body mass index (BMI), the neck was highly reported as a site of pain. In addition, the REBA results revealed that 36% and 49% of the senior students in this study had a high and medium risk level for developing musculoskeletal disorders, respectively. The current results indicate that lower back pain is the most common musculoskeletal disorder among senior physiotherapy and occupational therapy students. This research also shows that based on the REBA tool, 36% of the senior students were at high risk for developing musculoskeletal disorders.