Iranian Journal of Ergonomics

Introduction: Work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSDs) are the most common occupational health problems, reported with high costs and loss of productivity in nurses. On one hand, the quality of life is a multidimensional concept that affects factors such as physical and psychological ones. This study aimed to evaluate the relationship between WMSDs and quality of life in nurses.

Methods: This descriptive-analytical study was performed on 940 nursing staff in Hospitals of Sari, Iran. The samples were selected by census sampling method. Data were gathered using particular questionnaires of musculoskeletal disorders (Nordic) and quality of life (SF-36). Collected data were analyzed by analysis of variance (ANOVA), t-test and Pearson's correlation using SPSS software (version 18).

Results: The results showed that low back disorder with prevalence of 60.9% was the most prevalent disorder among nurses. All aspects of quality of life, except for social functioning, were significantly correlated with WMSDs (P<0.05). In addition, there was a statistically significant relationship in age, gender and education level with WMSDs as well as in gender and work with quality of life (P<0.05).

Conclusions: According to this study, the prevalence of WMSDs was relatively high in nurses. In the majority of nurses, moderate quality of life was observed. Therefore, any intervention to improve quality of life and prevent WMSDs should be focused on, to reduce the physical needs and psychological pressures.

Background and Objectives: Musculoskeletal disorders cause about half of all work-related disease, and are the major cause of loss of time, increased costs, and labor injury. This study aims to evaluate the workload and its association with the prevalence of wrist disorders. It was carried out in the assembly workers of a manufacturing industry.
Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted among 120 female workers employed. Theit mental workload, physical workload and prevalence of wrist MSDs were evaluated using the NASA-TLX, the OCRA method and the Nordic wrist and hand scan questionnaire respectively.
Results: The NASA-TLX showed that the physical demands and effort with mean scores of 78.79 and 78.37 were respectively the most important subjective mental workload (SMWL) scale. Also The results on the basis of the OCRA risk level showed that the highest right-hand risk was at risk level 3 and the highest left-hand risk was at risk level 1 .The Statistical analysis showed that OCRA risk levels and mean scale physical demands and efforts were significantly higher in those with wrist pain than those without pain (P<0.05).There was a direct correlation between the severity of the wrist pain with the OCRA risk index in both hands (P=0.001) and the total score of NASA (r=0.232, P<0.05).
Conclusion: It was revealed that mental load was high in assembly lines of the manufacturing industry and this result was also confirmed by physical evaluation. This study indicated that overall score of SMWL can affect the incidence of MSDs. That is why mental workload should be considered as a risk factor for MSDs.