International Journal of Musculoskeletal Pain prevention
Volume:6 Issue: 3, Summer 2021

The purpose of this paper is to examine the factors associated with the occurrence of shoulder pain, neck pain, upper back pain and lower back pain with particular focus on carrying schoolbags.

A questionnaire containing a range of MusculoSkeletal Pain (MSP) related information was designed specifically for a group of schoolchildren aged 11 to 20 years and distributed to Grade 7 to Grade 13 students attending three main secondary education schools in Mauritius over the period July 2017 to February 2018. A total of 1048 questionnaires were circulated out of which 849 were useable. The study analyzed the impact of socio-economic characteristics, student perception of use of tablets, type of schoolbag, private tuition, performance, duration of bag carriage and anthropometric characteristics on musculoskeletal pain. Logistic regressions models were applied to inspect how those recorded factors contribute to the occurrence of musculoskeletal pain.

The main findings in this paper indicate that students from single-sexed girl and mixed schools relative to boys’ schools, student perception of tablet use, backpack schoolbag relative to handbag and shoulder-bag, performance, total weight and excess weight of schoolbags have significant positive impact on musculoskeletal pain.

The results point towards the importance of raising awareness among students to achieve a positive musculoskeletal health. Information obtained is deemed to affect schoolbook and equipment-carrying behaviour and future choice of schoolbag type.

MusculoSkeletal Disorders (MSDs) are one of the most common problems of students which if not prevented and treated can lead to physical and psychosocial disorders.The aim of this study was to compare MSDs in two groups of students with special needs who suffering from low vision and hearing impairment.

A cross-sectional study was conducted with of 62 students aged between 10-15 years old in Hamadan in 2019-2020 . Of these participants, 32 students living with hearing impairment and 30 students living with low visions. Demographic questionnaires and Nordic musculoskeletal disorders were used to collect data. SPSS software version 23 was used to analyse data through two-sample independent t-test,  chi- square test and logestic regression.

Tottaly 62 students took part in the study. The mean age of Low Vision Students( LVS) and Hearing Impairment Students (HIS) was 12.101.47± and 12.47± 1.64 years respectively. Of all students with low vision 10 individual (33.3%) and of all students with hearing impaiement 10 individuals (31.3%)  were suffering from MSDs. The most MSD affected areas in HIS was lumbar (15.6%) and in LVS was shoulder (16.7%). The results showed that MSDs did not differ significantly between the two groups of LVS and HIS (P> 0.05).

This study showed that at least one-third of LVS and HIS suffered from MSDs.   The need for therapeutic and educational strategies in the field of ergonomics interventional program for health promoting  of these students with special needs should be considered.

Musculoskeletal pain is one of the most prevalent causes of disability worldwide.The aim of this study was to assess the effects of a designed interventional program on promoting the knowledge, attitude and practice among clinical workers who working in hospitals of Lorestan, Iran.

In total 80 clinical workers of two hospitals of Lorestan province in were assessed in groups of intervention (N= 40) and control (N=40). These participants completed the demographic and researcher - made questionnaires as well as Visual Analog Scale (VAS) at the beginning of the study. Just the Intervention group were trained with educational program. The data based on researcher - made questionnaire and VAS were collected at 3- month follow up and analyzed using SPSS version 19.

Totally, 40 clinical workers in each group of intervention and control with mean age of (33.18±6.025) and (31.40± 6.732) were assessed respectively. Both groups were the same in terms of all studied variables at initial of the study (p > 0.05). However, there was a significant difference between the groups at 3- month follow up in terms of knowledge, attitude and practice (p<0.0001). Furthermore, the mean score low back pain behavior in intervention group (18.35±.5.30) was significantly improved in comparison with the control group (16.05±4.52) (p<0.001).

This study showed the educational program was benefit to improve the knowledge, attitude and behavior of regarding preventing low back pain among clinical workers among Lorestan hospitals in Iran.

An Objective measure of ergonomic risk factors in the workplace performs a significant role in preventing the prevalence of Work-related Musculoskeletal Disorders (WMSDs). Hairdressers are exposed to various safety and health risk factors due to the nature of their job. This study aimed to assess the risk of prevalence of WMSDs in female hairdressers.

In this study, the physical postures of 70 female hairdressers were assessed using Rapid Upper Limb Assessment (RULA) and Novel Ergonomic Postural Assessment (NERPA) and then the Nordic Questionnaire (NQ) was used to assess the prevalence of WMSDs.

RULA and NERPA final score in the worst and longest postures for hairdressers was 7. The highest prevalence of WMSDs was reported in the shoulder, knee and, neck area of the body. There was a significant relationship between hairdresser’s age and the prevalence of WMSDs in the shoulders, back, waist, knees and, ankles areas. The prevalence of WMSDs was found to have a significant relationship with standing-sitting activities.

The findings of this research revealed that the study population had a high prevalence of WMSDs, especially in the shoulder, knee and, neck areas. This study suggested that the conditions of the workplace should be improved. Therefore, in addition to improving working conditions, it is recommended that hairdressers be trained in identifying workplace hazards and so using proper ergonomic standards while working.

The workplace physical-ergonomic conditions have a great impact on the health, well-being, and productivity of employees. One of the ways to assess the general condition of office work environments is to use valid questionnaires, so the purpose of this study is to determine the validity and reliability of the Persian version of the Workplace Physical- Ergonomic Conditions Evaluation (PECE) questionnaire for its applicability in Iran.

The present study is an analytical study that was conducted on the administrative staff of a public university of Iran to Validate the Persian version of the PECE questionnaire. First, the Persian version of the questionnaire was prepared using the backward-forward translation method and then the translated questionnaire was filled out by 70 employees. Content Validity Index (CVI), Content Validity Rate (CVR), Test re-Test and Intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC) method were used to measure validity and reliability respectively t SPSS 26. In the validity analysis, Kappa and Spearman coefficients were used for agreement and correlation between the answers to the questions, respectively.

Totally 70 staffs including (15 men and 55 female) with mean age of 35.65 (7.89) took part in the study. CVI and CVR showed acceptable range for the valid question are. The kappa and Spearman coefficients ranges were 0.634 to 1 and 0.681 to 1 in the first and second questionnaires’ distribution. In the reliability analysis of the questionnaire, the ICC coefficient was 0.93. A significant relationship was found between gender and satisfaction with ergonomic issues

The Persian version of the PECE questionnaire is a useful tool for evaluating the general conditions of office work environments that can be used as part of workplace evaluation programs and occupational care to prevent occupational diseases such as WMSDs, Vision and eye, hearing, and Pulmonary disorders.