title: Risk of musculoskeletal disorders in upper limbs in dental students: concordance of different methods for estimation of body angle.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The purpose of this paper was to evaluate the agreement among different methods used to estimate angular deviation of the body to determine the risk for development of upper limb musculoskeletal disorders in dentistry undergraduates.
  
  
  METHODS
  Students (n = 79) enrolled in the final year undergraduate course of the Araraquara School of Dentistry-Syo Paulo State University-UNESP were evaluated. Photographs were taken of students performing clinical procedures. The work postures adopted by each student were evaluated by means of rapid upper limb assessment (RULA). The basis used to obtain the individual's final risk score is the measurement of the angular deviations in the neutral positions of the regions evaluated. Two methods were used to estimate the angular deviation of the body: Visual exam and Image Tool software. A RULA final risk score was attributed to each procedure the student performed (n = 333). Study of the agreement between the methods about risk of musculoskeletal disorders was conducted by means of Kappa (κ) statistics. The level of significance adopted was 5%.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Fair agreement (κ = 0.32) between the evaluated methods was verified.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The risk for development of upper limb musculoskeletal disorders by dentistry undergraduates evaluated by using RULA was not in agreement with the results obtained by use of visual exam and Image Tool.
authors.affiliation: Department of Social Dentistry, Araraquara School of Dentistry, UNESP, SP, Brazil.
authors.forename: Patricia Petromilli Nordi Sasso
authors.initials: PP
authors.lastname: Garcia
authors.forename: Juliana Alvares Duarte Bonini
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Campos
mesh_terms: D001132:Arm / Q000503:physiopathology*; D001938:Brazil; D006801:Humans; D009140:Musculoskeletal Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology*; D012307:Risk Factors; D013335:Students, Dental