OCCUPATIONAL AND INDIVIDUAL FACTORS RELATED TO MUSCULOSKELETAL SYMPTOMS IN 5 BODY REGIONS AMONG SWEDISH NURSING PERSONNEL

The relationship between individual factors, physical and psychosocial exposure at work, and musculoskeletal symptoms in the neck, shoulders , low back, hands, and knees was studied among female nursing personne l working at a Swedish hospital. The personnel had participated in a c ourse in work technique (patient transfer and handling principles). Pr ior to the course, the subjects had filled in a questionnaire (n = 688 ). The aim of this cross-sectional study was to elucidate whether diff erent individual and work factors are related to musculoskeletal sympt oms in a specific body region. Due to the cross-sectional design, howe ver, causality cannot be discussed. Univariate analyses and multiple l ogistic regression analyses were performed and yielded similar results . The latter analyses showed that in the present hospital setting, ind ividual factors together with physical and psychosocial work factors w ere related to symptoms in the neck, low back, and hands; individual f actors and psychosocial work factors were related to symptoms in the s houlders; while only individual factors were related to symptoms in th e knees. The results of the present study showed that various individu al factors and physical and psychosocial work factors were related to musculoskeletal symptoms in the different body regions. Thus, the iden tification of risk factors might have far-reaching implications for th e way in which effective health programs for prevention should be desi gned in the hospital setting.