Prevalence of Musculoskeletal Symptoms and Associated Risk Level among Adolescent Students at Some Selected Schools of Savar in Bangladesh

Nipa YS; Akter S; Ahmed MM; Khan MMKR

Nipa YS⁽¹⁾, Akter S^(2*), Ahmed MM⁽³⁾, Khan MMKR⁽⁴⁾

(1) Clinical Occupational Therapist, Department of Occupational Therapy, CRP- Savar, Dhaka-1343.
(2) Lecturer, Department of Occupational Therapy, BHPI, CRP- Savar, Dhaka, Bangladesh
(3) Technical Advisor, Handicap International, Gulshan-1, Dhaka.
(4) Clinical Occupational Therapist, Department of Occupational Therapy, CRP- Savar, Dhaka-1343.
(*) Corresponding Author

Abstract

Musculoskeletal disorders are a major occupational health problem all over the world. The occurrences of adolescent students' musculoskeletal disorders are linked with physical risk factors such as awkward posture during classrooms hours, laboratory work and carrying heavy loads of school bags on the shoulder. Concrete information regarding prevalence and postural risk level will provide a base for designing prevention and intervention program for the school going adolescents. However, there is little known about the situation of adolescent students of Bangladesh regarding musculoskeletal health and potential risk level. This paper investigated the prevalence of musculoskeletal symptoms and associated ergonomics risk level among adolescence students at Savar in Bangladesh. A quantitative research in the form of a cross sectional study was conducted with purposively selected adolescent students in four secondary schools. The Nordic Musculoskeletal questionnaire was used to find out the prevalence of musculoskeletal symptoms in the last 12 months preceding data collection. In addition, Rapid Entire Body Assessment (REBA) was used to determine the physical risk level. Chi square test was conducted to estimate association between demographic factors and postural risk level. This study demonstrated that about 99.4% of the adolescent students faced musculoskeletal problems in the last 12 months prior to data collection. 60.0% of the respondents reported that the most affected body part was neck, while 58.8% claimed that the most affected body part was lower back. This study also showed that 58.2% of the adolescent students were at medium risk level (risk score 4-7), whereas 35.8% were at high risk level (score 8 to 10). In addition, this study results also revealed that 29.7% of the participants reported interruption in activities of daily living due to lower back pain and, on the other hand, 29.1% identified neck pain as a cause of interruption in activities of daily living. It is a great concerning issue that adolescents' physical health and wellbeing is at risk. There should be further investigation to determine appropriate prevention and intervention program.

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