Study of Musculoskeletal Pain in Fruit Wholesalers at Charoen Sri Market Warin Chamrab, Ubon Ratchathani

Abstract

The aim of this study was to examine the basic health conditions, working postures and the possible correlations between them and the musculoskeletal pain found in fruit wholesalers at Charoen Sri Market, Warin Chamrab, Ubon Ratchathani. Data was collected from 40 fruit wholesalers by questionnaire then descriptive statistics and Chi-Square tests were used to summarise and analyse the data obtained. The results showed that subjects were aged between 19-63 years old, 40.40 on average, with BMI 25.00-25.99 kg/m²; categorised as overweight. Subjects experienced ergonomic hazards, namely, common working postures related to musculoskeletal disorders, awkward working postures, repetitive motions and forceful exertions. 87.5 percent of the subjects reported symptoms of musculoskeletal pain at a number of areas, particularly neck, shoulder, upper back, lower back and hand/wrist. The results of the correlational analysis showed that there was no significant association between the general health conditions of subjects and the musculoskeletal pain. Nevertheless, the underlying diseases significantly correlated with musculoskeletal pain on their feet (p-value = 0.02). In addition, the study found that there was a significant correlation between working postures to the musculoskeletal pain at shoulder, upper back, lower back, hip/thigh (p-value = 0.04, 0.03, 0.02, 0.02 respectively).