Work-Related Musculoskeletal Disorders and Associated Factors in Teachers of Physically and Intellectually Disabled Pupils

Abstract

Teachers in schools for physically and intellectually disabled pupils are assumed to have a risk of developing usculoskeletal disorders including the cervicobrachial and lower back regions. To date, however, studies concerning these issues are extremely limited. The present study aimed at clarifying the magnitude of the musculoskeletal disorders among the teachers, its work-relatedness and associated factors. First, we conducted self-administered questionnaires and medical checkups simultaneously for 126 female nursery school nurses to ascertain the validity of questions and answer options which we developed for epidemiologic research. Questions "haveyou had any pain or stiffness in your neck, shoulders or arms in the past month?" and "have you had any pain or stiffness in your lower back?", and an answer option "almost all day, everyday" were found to correlate well with the results of clinical examinations and difficulties in daily activities. Secondly, we analyzed self-administered questionnaires of 975 teachers working for physically and intellectually disabled pupils at municipal schools in a city. The questions and answer options which had been validated in the first study were used. In the males 16％ and 20％ complained "almost all day, everyday" of the cervicobrachial and lower back symptoms, respectively, and in the females 20％ and 16％ in that order. Adjusted odds ratios of both symptoms increased with an increase in objective scores which were obtained by the homogeneity analysis and were considered to reflect the quantity of nursing care burden on the teachers. In case of the cervicobrachial symptom females against males had a significantly higher odds ratio than unity. These results demonstrated that the musculoskeletal symptoms complained of highly by the teachers were work-related, and that the question and answer options we developed could be useful parameters in epidemiologic research for the symptoms now widely prevailing in various workplaces.