| Summary: | 碩士 === 長庚大學 === 早期療育研究所 === 105 === Background: Work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSDs) affect working population all over the world. This issue draws more and more attention from experts such as physicians, politicians, etc. Special education personnel who serve students with disabilities often experience physical strains; however, WMSDs have been overlooked in this population. The objectives of this study were to investigate the work-related ergonomics-associated factors in this population and to evaluate their correlation with the WMSDs prevalence. Methods: A questionnaire with four domains, namely demographics, prevalence of past work-related musculoskeletal disorders, prevalence of present work-related musculoskeletal disorders, and ergonomic factors, designed by our research team was delivered to educators who work in special education schools. Results: Almost 86 % of the 388 special education school teachers and teacher’s aides in this study experienced musculoskeletal disorders. The lower back, shoulder, and wrist were the three most affected regions. A logistic regression analysis revealed that the participants’ background factors, more than5.5 years of experience (odds ratio [OR] = 4.090, 95 % CI: 1.350-12.390), students with multiple disorders (OR = 2.412, 95 % CI: 1.100-5.287), and other work-related ergonomic factors (assistance in diaper changing and others duties), were strongly associated with the prevalence of WMSD. Nap habit (OR = 0.442, 95 % CI: 0.230-0.851) and having teaching partners in the same class (OR = 0.486, 95 % CI: 0.250-0.945) resulted in low possibility of acquiring WMSDs. The use of supportive devices was associated with a low WMSD prevalence. From the result, we found that by using supportive devices, the results would be negative correlated with pain in that body region. From the correlation analysis we also found that if the subject feel pain in one body part, he/she also feel pain in others body parts in different pain level. Conclusions: The present study revealed an association between WMSDs and specific job features among teachers and teacher’s aides in special education schools. Future efforts should emphasize examining safe student-handling ergonomics, formulating policies regarding student-teacher ratio, incorporating mandatory break times at the workplaces, and promoting personal health for preventing work-related injuries. For the further study, particularly designed supportive devices could be researched for this population and WMSDs prevalence before and after using supportive devices could be done in the further study.
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