Standing working posture and musculoskeletal pain among Citrus sinensis workers in a low-income country

Abstract

Background. Work-related musculoskeletal pain (WRMP) among Citrus sinensis farm workers has barely been studied. Yet most work tasks in such farms are manually performed using awkward standing postures that can contribute to WRMP. Aim. This study assessed the standing working posture in relation to WRMP among C. sinensis workers. Methods. Ninety-two workers engaged in manual tasks participated in this cross-sectional study. Postures at the upper limbs were analysed using the rapid upper limb assessment (RULA) method. Data were analysed using SPSS version 20. Results. Analyses generally showed statistically significant associations (p < 0.05) between a body part RULA score and WRMP at the concerned body part. The upper arm score was >1 in 77.2% of the workers and caused upper arm pain in 66.3%; the association between the upper score and upper pain was statistically significant (χ²= 20.57; p < 0.05). Similarly, significant associations were found between: (a) wrist score and wrist pain; (b) neck score and neck pain; (c) trunk score and back pain. Conclusions. C. sinensis workers use unsafe postures which contribute to WRMP at the upper arm, trunk, neck and wrists. Ergonomics measures are required to improve their working posture.

Keywords:

• Citrus sinensis
• musculoskeletal pain
• injury
• risk
• rapid upper limb assessment

Acknowledgements

The authors hereby declare that the study was wholly self-funded and no grant whatsoever was received. The authors wish to sincerely thank the participants for their voluntary participation in this study. Also, the authors thank farm management for the forums to discuss the findings and the pledge to work towards implementing the suggested possible corrective measures. All of the authors participated in the entire research process. All authors read and approved the final article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

France Ncube http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0364-1754

Artwell Kanda http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7910-8222

Tatenda Sanyanga http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1686-5183