Patient manual handling risk assessment among hospital nurses.
BACKGROUND
Manual patient handling is known to be the major source of musculoskeletal load among hospital nurses.


OBJECTIVE
The objectives of this study were to determine prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs), assess patient manual handling risk and identify major factors associated with MSDs symptoms among hospital nursing staff.


METHODS
This cross-sectional study was conducted among 400 randomly selected nurses from 75 wards of 11 hospitals. Data were collected by demographic and Nordic musculoskeletal questionnaires together with MAPO checklist. Prevalence of MSDs was estimated with confidence interval of 95%. Chi-square test and independent sample t-test were used to investigate differences of MSDs prevalence for demographic variables between the subjects with and without MSDs. Multiple logistic regression analysis was performed (forward: Wald) to determine MSDs associated risk factors.


RESULTS
The means of age and job tenure in subjects were 30.76 ± 6.44 and 6.92 ± 5.75 years, respectively. Some form of musculoskeletal symptoms had been experienced during the last 12 months by 88.2% of the subjects. MAPO assessment revealed that 83.5% of the individuals were at risk. Statistical analysis showed that job tenure, nurse to bed ratio, gender, shift working and MAPO score were associated with MSDs (p< 0.05).


CONCLUSIONS
Prevalence of MSDs in hospital nursing personnel was high and the occurrence of MSDs was found to be associated with MAPO score. Based on the results, to improve working conditions, it is imperative to provide lifting equipment, implement training programs and increase nurse to bed ratio in hospitals.
Department of Occupational Health, School of Health, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran.
R
R
Abedini
Research Center for Health Sciences, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran.
A R
AR
Choobineh
Department of Epidemiology, School of Health, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran.
J
J
Hasanzadeh
D000328:Adult; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007492:Iran / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D055805:Moving and Lifting Patients / Q000009:adverse effects; D059352:Musculoskeletal Pain / Q000453:epidemiology*; D009741:Nursing Staff, Hospital; D016272:Occupational Health; D010561:Personnel Staffing and Scheduling; D015995:Prevalence; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012737:Sex Factors; D013997:Time Factors; D016526:Workload; D055815:Young Adult
MAPO index; Musculoskeletal disorders; nursing personnel; patient manual handling