The frequency of musculoskeletal pain in nurses working in a university hospital and evaluation of risk factors associated with spine related problems

The main objectives of this study are to determine the frequency of the musculoskeletal system pain experienced by the nurses working in Bursa Uludag University Medical Faculty Hospital and to investigate the relevant personal and occupational risk factors. 239 nurses who participated in the study completed the survey including occupational and individual risk factors, the Nordic Musculoskeletal Questionnaire (NMQ) and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale. Based on the answers to the NMQ, the nurses who had neck pain also completed the Neck Pain Disability Questionnaire. Likewise, nurses with low back pain completed the Oswestry Low Back Pain Disability Questionnaire. Additionally, physical examination was performed for the regional pain. This study showed that the most common pain areas of the nurses were upper back (72.8%), low back (72.4%) and neck (66.1%). Neck pain was significantly associated with overall dissatisfaction about personal well-being (p=0.005), lack of sleep (p=0.004), anxiety (p=0.026), depression (p=0.010), reduction of cervical lordosis (p=0.001), cervical range of motion (p<0.001) and paraspinal tenderness (p<0.001). On the other hand, the factors that were significantly associated with low back pain were female gender (p=0.02), overall dissatisfaction about personal well-being (p<0.001), anxiety (p=0.003), depression (p=0.002), heavy object lifting (p=0.027), heavy object pulling or pushing (p=0.041), reduced mobility based on Schober test (p=0.012), increase or decrease in lumbar lordosis (p=0.001), paraspinal tenderness (p<0.001), and positive response to Valsalva test (p=0.040). In conclusion, our study suggests that musculoskeletal system pain is common in nurses, and generally originate from spinal area. In addition to occupational factors, psychosocial factors also play important role for cervical and low back pain. Key Words: Work related musculoskeletal disorders, neck pain, low back pain, nurse, risk factors.