ABSTRACT
Background: Musculoskeletal disorders are not uniformly prevalent across national boundaries or occupational groupings. The variability in WRMSD rates between research is attributed to a variety of factors, including subjective terminology, changes in assessment instruments, organizational variances in work environments, cultural disparities in pain and disorder perception, and reporting practices
Aim:This study aims to investigate the prevalence of WRMDs and associated selected risk factors among health care Professionals working in the University of Benin Teaching Hospital.
Method: 321 health care professionals (males 40.8% and females 59.1%) participated in this study. Data was collected with the use of Standardized NORDIC musculoskeletal questionnaire and by direct observation with the use of REBA tool. Data obtained were analyzed using IBM for a statistical package of social sciences (SPSS version 26) software and summarized using percentage, frequency, mean, and standard deviation. Chi-square was also used to test the association between the characteristics of participants and the prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders. The alpha level was set at p< 0.05
Results: Results showed that more than half of the participants (56.6%) experienced musculoskeletal pain as a result of their work and there was significant level of musculoskeletal pain with the 12-month prevalence in the various regions: low back pain (59.8%), neck pain (61.7%) and shoulder pain (43%). There was also a significant association between low back pain (X2 = 37.36, p <0.001), neck pain (X2 = 82.86, p <0.001) as well as shoulder pain (X2 = 53.43, p <0.001) and occupation of healthcare professionals. . There was significant association between age of the respondents and the prevalence of low back pain (X2 = 37.742, p <0.001), neck pain (X2 = 27.220, p <0.001) and shoulder pain (X2 = 61.585, p <0.001). There was a significant association between gender and neck pain (X2 =26.883, p <0.001) as well as (X2 = 11.228, p <0.001). There was a significant association between years of experience and low back pain (X2 =27.799, p <0.001), neck pain (X2 = 23.568, p <0.001) as well as shoulder pain (X2 = 66.733, p <0.001). There was also a significant association between the position adopted by healthcare professionals while working and the prevalence of low back pain (X2 =17.538, p <0.001), neck pain (X2 = 25.443, p <0.001) as well as shoulder pain (X2 = 17.435, p <0.001).
Conclusion and Recommendation: This study concluded that the prevalence of musculoskeletal pain/disorders among these health care professionals is present and high in various regions of the body as a result of work and there’s a relationship between the different profession, age, gender, years of experience, working posture and musculoskeletal disorders.
Keywords: Risk factors, Health Care Professionals, work-related musculoskeletal disorders.
