Work-organisational and personal factors associated with upper body musculoskeletal disorders among sewing machine operators

Abstract

Objective : To assess the contribution of work-organisational and personal factors to the prevalence of workrelated musculoskeletal disorders (WMSDs) among garment workers in Los Angeles. Methods : This is a cross-sectional study of self-reported musculoskeletal symptoms among 520 sewing machine operators from 13 garment industry sewing shops. Detailed information on work-organisational factors, personal factors, and musculoskeletal symptoms were obtained in face-to-face interviews. The outcome of interest, upper body WMSD, was defined as a worker experiencing moderate or severe musculoskeletal pain. Unconditional logistic regression models were adopted to assess the association between both work-organisational factors and personal factors and the prevalence of musculoskeletal pain. Results : The prevalence of moderate or severe musculoskeletal pain in the neck/shoulder region was 24% and for distal upper extremity it was 16%. Elevated prevalence of upper body pain was associated with age less than 30 years, female gender, Hispanic ethnicity, being single, having a diagnosis of a MSD or a systemic illness, working more than 10 years as a sewing machine operator, using a single sewing machine, work in large shops, higher work-rest ratios, high physical exertion, high physical isometric loads, high job demand, and low job satisfaction. Conclusion : Work-organisational and personal factors were associated with increased prevalence of moderate or severe upper body musculoskeletal pain among garment workers. Owners of sewing companies may be able to reduce or prevent WMSDs among employees by adopting rotations between different types of workstations thus increasing task variety; by either shortening work periods or increasing rest periods to reduce the work-rest ratio; and by improving the work-organisation to control psychosocial stressors. The findings may guide prevention efforts in the garment sector and have important public health implications for this workforce of largely immigrant labourers. E mployment in the garment industry rose worldwide in the late 1990s to approximately 11 million workers in 1998. 1 In the United States, over 300 000 garment workers were employed in 2005 to sew apparel. 2California is home to the largest garment production centre in the United States, with the majority of the garment shops located in the Los Angeles basin. Altogether these shops employ over 144 000 sewing machine operators, the majority of whom are minimum wage, unrepresented, immigrant women. 3A typical sewing workstation consists of a sewing table with a built-in electric sewing machine, a non-adjustable household chair, and cardboard boxes/cart to hold incoming fabrics and sewn products. Production sewing is a highly repetitive, highprecision task that requires the worker to lean forward to see the point of operation, while simultaneously using the hands to control fabric feed to the needle, and continuously operate foot and knee pedals (fig 1). [4][5][6] In the United States, sewing machine operators are in the top ...

A longitudinal study on risk factors for neck and shoulder pain among young adults in the transition from technical school to working life

“…Ethnicity was consistently associated with neck and shoulder pain and its importance has also been demonstrated in other studies on working populations (47,48). It has been hypothesized that ethnicity may play an important role due to both biological and cultural differences in pain (49).…”

Work-Related Musculoskeletal Disorders Among Self Employed Sewing Machine Operators in Maiduguri, Nigeria

“…In Denmark, Kaegaard and Andersen [8] reported prevalence of 15% and 5.8% for myofascial pain syndrome and rotator cuff tendinitis respectively among sewing machine operators. The prevalence of moderate to severe musculoskeletal pain in the neck/shoulder region and distal upper extremity were 24% and 16% respectively among sewing machine operators in Los Angeles [9]. A result of a study on ergonomics issues among sewing machine operators in the textile manufacturing industry in Botswana revealed a high prevalence of WMSDs [6].…”

Association Between Subjective Neck Pain and Characteristics of the Neck Region Among Female Sewing Machine Operators.

“…Res. 5(7), 2388-2395 2389 problems among sewing machine operators and a major component of these neck problems is neck pain (Kaergaard and Andersen, 2000;Schibye et al, 1995;Wang et al, 2007;and Vihma, Nurminen and Mutane, 1982)(Neck is a highly affected body part of sewing machine operators (Vihma, Nurminen and Mutane, 1982). They have to work long hours to achieve their production targets, keeping the neck in a static posture for a prolonged period of time.…”