Association between psychosocial factors and musculoskeletal symptoms among Iranian nurses.
BACKGROUND
While psychosocial factors have been associated with musculoskeletal symptoms among nurses in some countries, previous studies of Iranian nurses show little association using a demand and control questionnaire. The aim of this study is to assess and evaluate the prevalence of musculoskeletal symptoms and to assess their relationships with psychosocial factors among nurses in Iran.


METHODS
In a cross-sectional study, 347 hospital nurses completed a self-reported questionnaire containing the Standardized Nordic questionnaire for musculoskeletal symptoms and the General Nordic questionnaire for Psychological and Social factors at work (QPS Nordic 34+ Questionnaire).


RESULTS
Prevalence of low back pain, knee pain, shoulder pain, and neck pain were 73.2%, 68.7%, 48.6%, and 46.3%, respectively. Middle and high stress groups had higher crude and adjusted odds than the low stress group for all body sites. The association for neck, wrist/hand, and upper back and ankle/foot reports (adjusted odds ratio for high stress ranging from 2.4 to 3.0) were statistically significant.


CONCLUSIONS
We observed a high prevalence of self-reported musculoskeletal symptoms at a number of body sites, which were associated with psychosocial factors and specifically stress as defined by the QPS Nordic 34+ Questionnaire.
Mehrdad
Ramin
R
Department of Occupational Medicine, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Iran. rmehrdad@hsph.harvard.edu
Dennerlein
Jack T
JT
Haghighat
Mohammad
M
Aminian
Omid
O
D000328:Adult; D001416:Back Pain / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007492:Iran / Q000453:epidemiology; D017116:Low Back Pain / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology; D008297:Male; D009140:Musculoskeletal Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology; D009141:Musculoskeletal System; D019547:Neck Pain / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology; D009741:Nursing Staff, Hospital; D009784:Occupational Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology; D020069:Shoulder Pain / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D013315:Stress, Psychological