The Prevalence of Office Workers with Musculoskeletal Disorders in Faculty of Medicine, Khon Kaen University

Abstract

Background and objectives: Musculoskeletal symptoms are common among office workers. Still there is no information of its prevalence at the Faculty of Medicine, Khon Kaen University. This study aims to estimate the 12-month prevalence of self-reported musculoskeletal symptoms and their health behavior among office workers of  the faculty of Medicine, Khon Kaen university.

Methods: This study was descriptive study, study setting in Faculty of Medicine, Khon Kaen University, Thailand. The study population comprised of 648 office workers working at the Faculty on the days when sampling was done. The sample size was 240.  SPSS PC ver.17 was used to analyze and report the following descriptive statistics: frequency, percent, median, inter-quartile range, and 95% CI.

Results: The response rate was 76.3%. The prevalence of office workers at the faculty with work-related musculoskeletal disorders over the last year was 89.3%. The most common problem areas were neck (65.3%), shoulders (63.3%) and lower back (47.3%).  The region which most affects work performance were shoulders (41.9%), lower back (35.1%) and neck (33.3%), respectively. The reported methods using to relieve the symptoms are resting, changing position, stretching or taking a walk (74.3%), and using balm (60.3%).

Conclusion: The musculoskeletal disorders occur in every nine out of ten office workers in the Faculty and the symptoms are having a deleterious effect on work performance.  The most affected regions are in the midline of the body more than the extremities.

Keywords: Musculoskeletal disorder, Office Worker