1Professor, Department of Anatomy, Sree Balaji Dental College and Hospital, Biher, Chennai
3Post Doctoral Fellow, SQC & QR, ISI Institute, Chennai
2Professor, SQC & QR, ISI Institute, Chennai
4Professor & HOD, Department of Anatomy, Sree Balaji Medical College and Hospital, Biher, Chennai
5Associate Professor, Department of Anatomy, Sree Balaji Medical College and Hospital, Biher, Chennai
6Research Fellow, Department of Anatomy, Biher, Chennai
The aim of the present study was to evaluate the postural problems arising due to the working posture among nurses in Chennai, with an objective to determine the prevalence of musculo skeletal disorders.
The study was conducted on 176 nurses working in different hospitals. The randomly selected subjects were given the Standardized Nordic Questionnaire to find out the perception of musculoskeletal symptoms. Ergonomic assessment tools such as Rapid Upper Limb Assessment (RULA) Rapid entire body assessment (REBA) was used to assess the type of unpredictable working postures. The data were analyzed with Binary Logistic Regression using the Mini Tab (14) statistical software.
The RULA score for most of the subjects (84%) were left, 4 & 5 and right 6 & 7. The REBA score for 85% of the subjects were 7 and above which indicates the risk level is medium to high. There were significant association with socio demographic variables like age, work experience, patients attended per day, height, weight and BMI with the musculo skeletal disorders.
The study revealed that various socio demographic variables contributed to the musculoskeletal symptoms experienced by the nurses.
Musculoskeletal disorders, Standardized Nordic Questionnaire, Posture, REBA, RULA
