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| ORIGINAL ARTICLE |
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| Year : 2023 | Volume
: 2
| Issue : 2 | Page : 88-91 |
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Occupation-related musculoskeletal pain in school teachers: A cross-sectional survey
Noor Mohammad1, Sneha Chauhan1, Nahid Khan2
1 Department of Occupational Therapy, Jamia Hamdard, New Delhi, India
2 Department of Physiotherapy, Jamia Hamdard, New Delhi, India
| Date of Submission | 22-Dec-2022 |
| Date of Decision | 24-Mar-2023 |
| Date of Acceptance | 27-Mar-2023 |
| Date of Web Publication | 24-Apr-2023 |
Correspondence Address:
Dr. Noor Mohammad
Central Library, Department of Occupational Therapy, Jamia Hamdard, New Delhi - 110 062
India
 Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None
DOI: 10.4103/abhs.abhs_68_22
Background: Teaching profession demands the high level of physical and psychological involvement. Musculoskeletal pain is common among different professionals. The study is aimed to find out the occurrence of musculoskeletal pain among teachers and its correlation with occupation.
Methods: One hundred and nine government school teachers participated in the study. The presence of musculoskeletal pain was assessed by using nordic musculoskeletal questionnaire and job-related stress was assessed by new brief job stress questionnaire. Pearson's correlation was used to correlate the musculoskeletal disorder and job-related stress.
Results: The study reports that participants experienced musculoskeletal pain at various joints in last 12 months; 62.39% reported neck pain, 41.28% reported shoulder pain, 40.37% reported upper back pain, 9.7% reported elbow pain, 23.85% reported wrist pain, 31.20% reported lower back pain, 10.09% reported hip pain, 34.86% reported knee pain, and 29.36% reported ankle pain. A strong positive correlation was found between job-related stress and neck pain (r = 0.19, P = 0.04) and job-related stress and lower back pain (r = 0.37, P = 0.00).
Conclusion: From the study, it can be concluded that school teachers increased job-related stress has direct impact on the occurrence of the musculoskeletal pain.
Keywords: Job related stress, musculoskeletal pain, school teacher
How to cite this article:
Mohammad N, Chauhan S, Khan N. Occupation-related musculoskeletal pain in school teachers: A cross-sectional survey. Adv Biomed Health Sci 2023;2:88-91 |
How to cite this URL:
Mohammad N, Chauhan S, Khan N. Occupation-related musculoskeletal pain in school teachers: A cross-sectional survey. Adv Biomed Health Sci [serial online] 2023 [cited 2023 Jun 9];2:88-91. Available from: http://www.abhsjournal.net/text.asp?2023/2/2/88/374457 |
| Background | |  |
Musculoskeletal pain is the most common occupation-related health problems resulting into social and economic implications [1]. Musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) are injuries or pain in the human musculoskeletal system, including the joints, ligaments, muscles, nerves, tendons, and structures that support limbs, neck, and back leading to substantial impact on the quality of life. In comparison to other professionals, school teachers showed high prevalence of musculoskeletal pain [2]. In addition, inadequate awareness of ergonomics designing, prolonged standing, sitting, and compromised posture results in MSD. Along with teaching school teachers are involved in extracurricular school activities and duties which causes additional physical and psychological job related stress [3]. Joints of the body most commonly affected are lower back, neck, shoulder, forearm, and hand.
Work-related stress is cause or made worse by demand of the occupation in which one is engaged. Musculoskeletal pain in the low back and upper extremities has been linked to stress, especially job stress.
Physical demands that are imposed on the body at the work place such as awkward or fixed posture for a long time, heavy lifting, and repetitive tasks are reported to be the causes or aggravating factors for work-related musculoskeletal stress disorders [4].
MSDs are caused by biomechanical load which is the force that must be applied to do tasks, the duration of the force applied, and the frequency with which tasks are performed [7]. Activities involving heavy loads can result in acute injury, but most occupation-related MSDs are from motions that are repetitive or from maintaining a static position[8]. Occupation-related demands at work like awkward and fixed posture for prolonged duration and repetitive tasks lead to the work-related musculoskeletal pain.
School teachers are involved with regular head-flexed posture while reading, writing, and checking answer sheets and using board for teaching. Variety of tasks in which school teachers are involved demands sustained mechanical load on various joints of the body. Along with teaching, school teachers are involved in the extracurricular school activities and duties which causes additional physical and psychological job-related stress [3]. Therefore, the need was felt to conduct a study aiming to identify the occurrence of MSD in government school teachers of Delhi, India and its correlation with job-related stress.
| Materials and Methods | | |
The study was conducted at three different government schools located in New Delhi, India between January and August 2020.
Ethical approval/informed consent: the study was a cross-sectional survey study. Ethical approval was taken from the Jamia Hamdard institutional ethics committee. Informed consent was taken from all the participants after explaining testing and study protocol.
A total of 130 participants were invited for the study, out of which 109 participants enrolled in the study. About 30-45-year-old male and female government school teachers with minimum 1 year of work experience and recent complaint (12 month) of any musculoskeletal pain were included in the study. Participants with injury related to any joint, congenital anomalies, past history (more than 12 months) of musculoskeletal pain and any pathological disease/disorder related to joint were excluded from the study.
Demographic data with height, weight, and body mass index (BMI) of the participants were recorded using stadiometer and weighing machine, respectively. Self-reporting, nordic musculoskeletal questionnaire (NMQ) was used to find the presence of musculoskeletal pain [5]. For determining job-related stress, new job stress questionnaire was used [6],[7]. Author's permission was taken for both the questionnaires.
Collected data were analyzed using SPSS (IBM Corp., 2017. IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows, Version 20, Armonk, NY: IBM Corp). Pearson correlation was used to find the correlation between job-related stress and musculoskeletal pain.
Data analysis
MS Excel was used for descriptive analysis. IBM SPSS statistics for windows, version 20 was used for the statistical analysis. Descriptive analysis was performed using mean and standard deviations (SDs) Pearson correlation was used to find the relationship between MSDs and job-related stress.
| Results | | |
A total of 109 participants were selected on the bases of inclusion criteria. Seventy-eight were females and 31 were male participants [Figure 1]. The mean and SD of age and BMI of participants were 36.04 ± 4.02 and 23.67 ± 3.70, respectively [Table 1]. The mean and SD of new job stress questionnaire was 156.96 ± 20.51 [Table 2]. Last 12 months experienced trouble (such as ache, pain, discomfort, and numbness) on various joints (neck, shoulder, upper back, elbow, hand, lower back, hip, knee, and ankle) were self-reported. Most of the participants reported pain in neck, shoulder, upper back, lower back, knee, and ankle and least reported joints were elbow, hand, and hip [Figure 2]. | Figure 2: Graphical representation of musculoskeletal distress reported in various joints by participants.
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Significant strong positive correlation was found between, job-related stress and involvement of neck joint with MSD (r = 0.19, P = 0.04) and involvement of lower back joint with MSD (r = 0.37, P = 0.00). No correlation was found between job-related stress and shoulder (r = 0.06, P = 0.51), upper back (r = 0.14, P = 0.14), elbow (r = 0.06, P = 0.48), hand (r = 0.07, P = 0.94), hip (r = 0.01, P = 0.84), knee (r = 0.11, P = 0.25), ankle (r = 0.05, P = 0.57), respectively [Table 3]. | Table 3: Correlation between job-related stress and musculoskeletal pain.
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| Discussion | | |
The paper investigates the prevalence of musculoskeletal pain among school teachers. The study was conducted through a cross-sectional survey of 109 government school teachers in New Delhi, India, using a self-administered NMQ and brief job stress questionnaire. The study found that a significant proportion of school teachers reported musculoskeletal pain, with the highest prevalence in the neck, shoulder, upper back, lower back, and knee region. The results of the study are in line with previous literature on the topic [9],[10],[11],[12].
Previous literature has consistently reported that musculoskeletal pain is a significant problem among occupational groups such as school teachers [13]. Several studies have shown that school teachers are at high risk of developing musculoskeletal pain due to their prolonged sitting, standing, and repetitive movements. In particular, studies have identified the lower back as the most commonly affected region among school teachers, which is consistent with the findings of this study [14],[15].
The current study adds to the existing literature by providing evidence of the prevalence and severity of musculoskeletal pain among school teachers in a government school teacher in New Delhi, India. The study highlights the need for targeted interventions to prevent and manage musculoskeletal pain among this occupational group.
The findings of the current study are also supported by relevant latest references. A recent systematic review of musculoskeletal pain in teachers found that the prevalence of musculoskeletal pain among teachers ranges from 40% to 90% [16] The review also highlighted the need for interventions to reduce the risk of musculoskeletal pain among teachers. Another recent study conducted among primary school teachers in China found a high prevalence of musculoskeletal pain, with the lower back being the most commonly affected region [17],[18].
The study on occupation-related musculoskeletal pain in school teachers provides further evidence of the high prevalence and severity of musculoskeletal pain among this occupational group. The findings of the study are consistent with previous literature and are supported by relevant latest references. The study highlights the need for targeted interventions to prevent and manage musculoskeletal pain among school teachers, which can ultimately improve their quality of life and work performance.
The survey was carried out for short duration and covered 3 school teachers' response. Sample size of 109 was small to generalize the finding of the study. Finding of the study was based on the self-reported responses, which can be a bias.
| Conclusion | | |
It can be concluded from the findings of the study, musculoskeletal pain is significantly occurring in government school teachers of New Delhi, India. High prevalence of musculoskeletal pain is reported in neck, shoulder, upper back, elbow, hand, lower back, hip, knee, and ankle. Job-related stress which is one of the risk factors for MSD should be minimized and preventive strategies should be adopted. To enhance the work productivity in school teachers and prevention of MSD, exposure of work-related stress of teachers should be taken care and minimized at their work place.
Study limitations
This study has several limitations; the survey was carried out for short duration and covered 3 school teachers' response. The sample size of 109 was small to generalize the finding of the study. The finding of the study was based on the self-reported responses, which can be a bias.
Further study with larger sample size in various age ranges is needed for systematic analysis to obtain implications. Data collected in this study were from limited geographical reach, therefore, suggesting a need for future study. This study was one-time survey based, that would not track changes in other factors which may cause musculoskeletal pain.
Informed consent
Written informed consent was obtained from all the participants.
Author's contributions
NM conceived the research concept, developed research design, prepared the first draft and all reviewers reviewed and approved final draft of manuscript, SC conducted Data Collection and or Processing, Analysis and or Interpretation, NK Critically Reviewed manuscript. All authors are responsible for the contents and integrity of this manuscript.
Ethical statement
This is a preliminary observational research with cross-sectional survey study design without intervention. The study followed all the core principles of ethical integrity in research.
Financial support and sponsorship
Not applicable.
Conflict of interests
No conflict of interests declared.
Data availability statement
All the original contributions presented in this manuscript are included in the article.
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[Figure 1], [Figure 2]
[Table 1], [Table 2], [Table 3]
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