The association between adverse ergonomic factors and work-related musculoskeletal symptoms among medical staff in China: a cross-sectional study

Abstract

We investigated the prevalence of work-related musculoskeletal symptoms (WMSs) among medical staff and evaluated the associations of different levels of adverse ergonomic factors with WMSs. A total of 6099 Chinese medical staff were asked to complete a self-reported questionnaire to assess the prevalence and risk factors of WMSs from June 2018 to December 2020. A prevalence rate of 57.5% was observed for WMSs among overall medical staffs, which mainly affected the neck (41.7%) and shoulder (33.5%). ‘Keeping sitting for long hours very frequently’ (OR = 1.26, 95% CI: 1.04, 1.53) was positively associated with WMSs in doctors, while ‘keeping sitting for long hours occasionally’ (OR = 0.91, 95% CI: 0.85, 0.97) was identified as a protective factor of WMSs in nurses. The associations of adverse ergonomic factors, organisational factors, and environmental factors with WMSs were different among medical staff in different positions.

Practitioner summary: We conducted a multi-city study concerning the risk factors of WMSs by carrying out a face-to-face one-to-multiple questionnaire survey among medical staff in China. As a risk factor of WMSs in medical staff, adverse ergonomic factors should be paid more attention by the standard setting department and policy makers.

Abbreviations: WMSDs: work-related musculoskeletal disorders; WMSs: work-related musculoskeletal symptoms; MSDs: musculoskeletal disorders; NMQ: Nordic Musculoskeletal Questionnaires; DMQ: Dutch Musculoskeletal Questionnaires; NIOSH: National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health; ORs: odds ratios

Keywords:

• Medical staff
• work-related musculoskeletal disorders
• work-related musculoskeletal symptoms
• ergonomics
• prevalence
• risk factors

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the team members who participated in the questionnaire distribution and data collection. We would also like to thank all medical personnel who participated in the questionnaire survey.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Project of Occupational Health Risk Assessment and National Occupational Health Standard Formulation of National Institute of Occupational Health and Poison Control (Project No.131031109000150003) and National Key R&D Program of China (2022YFC2503205).