Prevalence of work-related musculoskeletal disorders in agricultural farmers of Bhaktapur District, Nepal

Abstract

Background: Work-related musculoskeletal disorders are present in a range of occupations. This is confirmed from a number of studies done around the world. However, few attempts have been done to document the presence of musculoskeletal disorders in occupational diseases in Nepal and there are hardly any studies done to see musculoskeletal disorders in farmers of Nepal. Nepal is an agricultural country and traditional practices in farming are adopted demanding a lot on the manual work.
 Objectives: Aim of this study is to find out the prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders in Bhaktapur district of Nepal.
 Methods: This is a descriptive cross-sectional study design. A convenience sample of 246 farmers from Bhaktapur district, Nepal aged between 24-65 years, were included in the study. The Nordic musculoskeletal questionnaire was a tool adapted to measure MSDs in the farmers. Descriptive analysis of data was done.
 Results: Farmers (n=246) reported pain in all the nine areas of the body mentioned in the questionnaire. More than 70% of farmers have some kind of musculoskeletal disorders. However, six major areas of pain were identified as: Neck-31(12.6 %), Shoulder-26(10.6%), Elbow- 30(12.2%), Low back- 89(36.2%), Knee- 53(21.5%) and ankle 32(13%).
 Conclusion: The prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders in farmers is very high. Lack of awareness about the MSDs and improper knowledge of ergonomics causes the problems.

The prevalence and associated risk factors of musculoskeletal pain among pilgrims during the Hajj: cross-sectional results from 59 nationalities

“…This result is similar to those of several studies reporting similar shoulder pain prevalences, such as in the general population in the Netherlands (20.9%), the general population in Sweden (19.88%) [46] and dentists in Greece (19.77%) [39]. However, our results differ from those examining different populations, which reported either higher or lower prevalence rates compared to our study, such as school teachers in Saudi Arabia (59.26%) [51], nursing assistants in Norway (47.1%) [36], the working population in New Zealand (42%) [35], occupational drivers in Nigeria (30.82%) [34], agricultural farmers in Nepal (10.57%) [40], the general population in the United Kingdom (7.48%) [52] and construction workers in Saudi Arabia (4.24%) [43].…”

“…In our study, the most common musculoskeletal pain of the spine among pilgrims was low back pain (28.40%). This result is similar to those of several studies that reported similar low back pain prevalences, such as among agricultural farmers in Nepal (36.18%) [40], dentists in Iran (33%) [38], the general population in the Netherlands (26.9%) [42], construction workers in Saudi Arabia (24.24%) [43] and the general population in Sweden (22.97%) [46]. However, the prevalence of low back pain in our study was slightly lower than that reported in other studies, which reported higher rates of low back pain in school teachers in Saudi Arabia (66.87%) [51], occupational drivers in Nigeria (64.78%) [34], physiotherapists in India (61.50%) [37], nursing assistants in Norway (54.9%) [36], the working population in New Zealand (54%) [35] and dentists in Greece (46.05%) [39].…”

“…The majority of pilgrims (82.27%) had at least 1 musculoskeletal complaint during the Hajj. This high prevalence rate was in consistent with the findings of previous studies among different populations, such as occupational drivers in Nigeria (89.31%) [34], the working population in New Zealand (92%) [35], nursing assistants in Norway (88.8%) [36], physiotherapists in India (88%) [37], dentists in Iran (73.17%) [38] and Greece (62%) [39], agricultural farmers in Nepal (70%) [40] and bariatric surgeons around the globe (66%) [41]. Our findings differ from those of studies that reported lower rates of musculoskeletal pain, such as the general population in the Netherlands (53.9%) [42], construction workers in Saudi Arabia (48.48%) [43], the Quebecois working population in Canada (41.43%) [44], the older population in the United States (40%) [45] and the general populations in Sweden (23.9%) [46], Brazil (21.6%) [47] and Japan (15.38%) [48].…”

“…Few studies reported higher rates of ankle/foot pain, such as a study conducted among school teachers in Saudi Arabia (ankle: 42.59%, heel: 55.97%) [51]. Most studies reported lower rates of ankle/foot pain compared to our study, such as a study of the working population in New Zealand (20%) [35], nursing assistants in Norway (15.5%) [36], agricultural farmers in Nepal (13.01%) [40], the general population in Sweden (12.37%), occupational drivers in Nigeria (11.95%) [34], the general population in the Netherlands (ankle: 4.9%, foot: 6.5%) [42] and construction workers in Saudi Arabia (3.03%) [43].…”

“…Possible explanations for the differences in the results of musculoskeletal pain between our study and others in the literature The variations in the results for estimating the prevalence of musculoskeletal pain between our study and others in the literature can be possibly explained by several factors, including the differences in populations, study design and methodology, such as the large variation in the sample size, data collection method and statistical analysis. For example, some studies estimated the point prevalence of musculoskeletal pain [38,41,43,46,51,52], whereas others estimated period prevalence [35,37,44,45] or both [40,42,49]. Many studies had a small or an average sample size (< 400) [34,37,38,40,41,43].…”