Department of Physiotherapy, M. A. Rangoonwala College of Physiotherapy and Research, Azam Campus, Pune, Maharashtra, India
Grocery store workers are known for their long hours of work and comparatively tedious and heavy job as compared to many other professions. Their work involves heavy external loading, frequent lifting of heavy loads, awkward working positions and long duration of work. They work for nearly 12 hours a day 72 to 84 hours per week, which provides a biomechanical platform for numerous types of musculoskeletal pain. Long hours at work can give rise to ‘Burnout Syndrome’ associated with long term exhaustion, emotional instability, insomnia and reduced interest. This further gives rise to diminished output from the worker.
To find prevalence of musculoskeletal pain in male grocery store workers.
It was a questionnaire-based survey in the grocery stores of Pune and Mumbai. Hundred male workers were included in the study. Inclusion criteria being workers in the age group of 18–35 years and more than Six months of work experience. The Nordic Musculoskeletal Questionnaire was used to locate the joints involvedand Numerical Analog Scale (NAS) was used to quantify pain.
The ‘P’ values were obtained using Chi-Square test with reference to equal distribution of categories. ‘P’ valued of less than 0.05 was considered significant with 95% confidence interval.
Eighty-nine per cent respondents experienced pain at least one pain site and 11% subjects experienced no pain at all. Study shows that Lower back region is the site where 60% subjects reported pain in last 12 months and 56% in last Seven days. Other frequent sites of pain were knees, ankles/feet, Hips/thighs followed by upper back, neck and shoulders. Average NAS pain for neck and lower back is significantly higher among the volunteers who work for less than 12 hours a day compared to the volunteers who work for more than 12 hours a day. Average NAS pain at other sites did not differ significantly between two groups of working hours. Average NAS pain for Lower back is significantly higher among the volunteers who have more experience (≥Nine years) compared to the volunteers who have less experience (<Nine years).
Significant number of male grocery store workers suffers from musculoskeletal disorders due to their occupation.
Grocery store workers, Chronic pain, Musculo-skeletal disorders
