PROFILE OF THE MUSCULOSKELETAL PAIN SUFFERED BY TEXTILE TUFTING WORKERS HANDLING THREAD CONES ACCORDING TO WORK, AGE AND EMPLOYMENT DURATION

This paper studies the relationship between some socio-professional ch aracteristics of workers (e.g. age, actual work done, experience in th e job, overall time on job market, height) carrying out thread-cone ha ndling tasks and their musculoskeletal pain profiles. Interviews were carried out with foremen and workers, and task analysis was performed. Self-administered questionnaires on work-related pain were filled out by 114 machine operators and creelers in four carpet-manufacturing co mpanies. Statistics on nine individual and 25 pain-symptom characteris tics were compiled. For data treatment, two statistical methods comple mented one another: the Factorial Analysis of Correspondence (FAC) and the Hierarchical Ascendant Classification (HAC). Four classes of work ers showing large differences one to another regarding time of employm ent on the job market, age, seniority in the company, and job experien ce were portrayed. No remarkable differences were found between the cl asses in relation to the proportion of workers showing body pain sympt oms; it is greater than 50% in all classes (12 months). Moreover, in a ll classes, for several workers, the first region of pain (out of thre e possible) was reported as one persisting over the weekend. The group of workers from 25 to 35 years of age appears to be the one most seri ously affected by musculoskeletal pain.