title: Prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders among dentists in the Hail Region of Saudi Arabia.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Dentists suffer a high prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) but studies are quite limited. The present study was carried out to investigate the prevalence of MSDs among dentists in the Ha'il Region, Saudi Arabia.
  
  
  METHODS
  A cross-sectional, questionnaire study was conducted among 80 licensed dentists af.filiated with the Ministry of Health (MoH), Ha'il Region, Saudi Arabia from January 2014-January 2015.
  
  
  METHODS
  A self-administered questionnaire, based on the Nordic Musculoskeletal Questionnaire (NMQ) was sent to participants after translation to Arabic. The questionnaire was delivered by mail with a prepaid return envelope.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Sixty-eight questionnaires (85%) were returned. The prevalence of MSDs among respondents was 77.9% (n=53) with the most commonly affected areas the lower back (73.5%) (39/53) followed by the neck (66%) (35/53) and the shoulders (43.3%) (23/53). Twenty-four (45.2%) of 53 respondents had experienced MSDs in the neck and lower back at the same time throughout the past twelve months. Nearly 85% (45/53) of respondents were found to have MSDs affecting two or more sites.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Prevalence of MSDs was high among dentists in the Ha'il region. Lower back, neck and shoul.ders were the most commonly affected body sites.
authors.forename: Mohammad
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Aljanakh
authors.affiliation: Dr. Sameer Shaikh, Department of Oral Diagnosis and Oral Medicine,, College of Dentistry,, University of Ha'il,, PO Box 2440 Ha'il,, Saudi Arabia, M: 966-530-935-057, smrshaikh@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Sameer
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Shaikh
authors.forename: Ammar Ahmed
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Siddiqui
authors.forename: Moazzy
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Al-Mansour
authors.forename: Syed Sirajul
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Hassan
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003815:Dentists / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009140:Musculoskeletal Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology*; D009784:Occupational Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology*; D015995:Prevalence; D012529:Saudi Arabia / Q000453:epidemiology; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires