| Summary: | 碩士 === 中國醫藥學院 === 環境醫學研究所 === 91 === Abstract
Musculoskeletal disorders have become more common in Taiwan in a variety of workplaces and occupations, particularly nursing. The purpose of this study was to investigate the prevalence and factors associated with musculoskeletal disorders among nurses in two hospitals in central Taiwan.
All participants were assessed by the standardized Nordic musculoskeletal questionnaire (NMQ), which includes items regarding demographics, personal habits, ergonomic factors in the workplace, and musculoskeletal status in nine body parts. Field observations were conducted using the musculoskeletal disorder checklist (MSDs), which categorizes body movements into upper extremities, lower extremities and transporting. A total of 1362 participants took part in the study, including 567 nurses from a teaching hospital and 795 nurses from a medical center. The response rates at these hospitals were 82.7% and 92.3%, respectively. The results showed that in the teaching hospital prevalence of neck pain was 61.3%, followed by lower back pain (58.4%), and shoulder pain (57%). In the medical center, prevalence of neck pain, shoulder pain and lower back pain was 63.5%, 62.6% and 59.3%, respectively. These disorders significantly correlated with personal habits and repetitive movements in the workplace. Wrist and hand disorders negatively correlated with fitness. Pain in the neck, shoulder and wrist/hands correlated positively with work duration. Lower extremity pain correlated with work shift. Multiple logistic regression showed that after adjusting for gender, age, years of employment, marital status, smoking, motherhood, body mass index (BMI) and hospital, musculoskeletal disorders in the nine body parts were significantly correlated with quality of life, work satisfaction and work loading. There was a clear dose-response of musculoskeletal disorders and quality of life, work satisfaction and work loading. MSDs was used to determine the intensities of ergonomic stress in the workplace. In this regard, the worst areas of the hospital to work in were the intensive care unit (ICU), operating theater, and the emergency department (ED). MSDs scores in these three areas exceeded 5.
We recommend that steps be taken to improve the quality of life and work satisfaction of nurses and to decrease work loading in order to decrease the incidence of musculoskeletal disorders. More research is needed to improve the ergonomics in the workplace.
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