Musculoskeletal symptoms (MSS) and their associations with ergonomic physical risk factors of the women engaging in regular rural household activities: A picture from a rural village in Bangladesh

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Musculoskeletal complaints among housewives are very common around the world. In Bangladesh, although the majority of women are involved in various household activities, no studies were found related to musculoskeletal health and ergonomic risk factors for this work. OBJECTIVE: This study explored the prevalence of commonly affected body parts where the women experienced Musculoskeletal Symptoms (MSS), the disruption of normal activities due to the MSS, and the association of MSS with ergonomic physical risk factors among women engaging in regular household activities in a rural village of Bangladesh. PARTICIPANTS: Participants were women aged 20-45 in a small village in Bangladesh who were involved in regular household activities for at least 5 hours a day for the past year. METHOD: A total of 73 women were found eligible though door-to-door home visits to determine the prevalence of MSS. Women who had already been diagnosed with any arthritic conditions like rheumatoid and osteoarthritis were excluded for the study. The Standardized Nordic Questionnaire (SNQ) was used to determine the prevalence of MSS. Forty-six women out of 73 who reported MSS in the past 12 months were voluntarily assessed using the Musculoskeletal Disorder (MSD) risk assessment to determine the association between physical risk factors and MSS. RESULTS: 68.49% (n = 50) women reported having MSS during the last 12 months and 50.68% (n = 37) of the respondents were prevented from normal daily activities due to MSS. Most commonly affected regions were upper and lower back, wrist, knees and elbows. Awkward posture, such as bending, lifting and working in squatting position, movements of repetition were associated with MSS in different body parts. CONCLUSION: The prevalence of MSS and the resultant disruption of regular activities among rural women indicate that ergonomic attention is needed to improve their well-being.

A meta-analysis of the association between physical demands of domestic labor and back pain among women

“…Mean age of participants ranged from 29 to 49 years across studies. Six studies included samples from high-income countries [ 47 – 52 ] and five studies were included samples from LMICs (Ghana/South Africa, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Brazil, Lebanon) [ 25 , 53 – 56 ].…”

A meta-analysis of the association between physical demands of unpaid domestic work and back pain among women

“…Mean age of participants ranged from 29-49 years across studies. Six studies included samples from highincome countries [48][49][50][51][52][53] and ve studies were included samples from LMICs (Ghana/South Africa, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Brazil, Lebanon) [25,[54][55][56][57].…”

“…Seven studies recruited only women [25,48,50,[52][53][54]57], three studies either had a sample that included at least 50% women or reported gender-strati ed results [49,51,55], and one large-scale study did not specify the number of women recruited but strati ed results by gender [56]. All studies speci ed common domestic tasks done by women (e.g.…”

“…cleaning, cooking, child caregiving). Four studies were on full-time housewives/homemakers [25,50,54,57] while the remaining eight included women with paid employment.…”

“…Three studies categorized PDDW as number of hours per week performing domestic tasks [50][51][52] four studies categorized exposure as biomechanical (lifting, carrying, working in static and awkward postures) [25,54,55,57] and the rest categorized PDDW based on intensity (heavy or light) and frequency of work [48,49,53,56]. In all included studies, exposure information was ascertained by self-report (i.e.…”