Musculoskeletal pain and its relation to individual and work-related factors: a cross-sectional study among Turkish office workers who work using computers

Abstract

Objective. Office workers are commonly exposed to work-related musculoskeletal pain. This study investigated the individual and work-related risk factors linked to musculoskeletal pain and pain-related disability among Turkish office workers who work using computers. Methods. One-hundred and fifty office workers were included. Data were collected using an online survey with a combination of the Nordic musculoskeletal questionnaire, Oswestry disability index (ODI), neck disability index (NDI) and disabilities of the arm, shoulder, and hand questionnaire short-form (Q-DASH). The participants were divided into four subgroups: no pain (n = 26), lower back pain (n = 37), neck pain (n = 49) and upper-extremity pain (n = 38). Results. There were differences between subgroups in terms of the condition that feet touch the floor and the condition that the keyboard, mouse and wrist are in a straight line (p = 0.013 and p = 0.025, respectively). Working years was correlated with the ODI score (ρ = 0.802, p = 0.041). There was also a significant correlation between the NDI score and working hours (ρ = 0.415, p = 0.003), while Q-DASH was correlated with body mass index and working years (ρ = 0.406, p = 0.014, and ρ = 0.327, p = 0.043, respectively). Conclusions. Pain-related disability was associated with various risk factors such as physical inactivity, body mass index, working hours, working years and workplace ergonomics in the office workers.

Keywords:

• lower back pain
• musculoskeletal disorders
• neck pain
• upper extremities
• working conditions
• work using computers

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Ethical approval

This study was approved from the Non-Interventional Clinical Research Ethics Committee of Istanbul Medipol University (approval number: 597, dated August 1, 2019). This study has been registered on ClinicalTrials.gov with the registration number NCT04160585.

Supplemental data

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed at <https://doi.org/10.1080/10803548.2020.1827528>.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.