Work-Related Musculoskeletal Disorders Among Handloom Workers in Kerala, India

Abstract

Work-related musculoskeletal disorder (WMSDs) is a major problem in most of the occupations. The objective of this paper is to determine the prevalence, characteristics, and impacts of WMSDs in certain anatomical areas of the body among handloom industry workers in Kerala. A cross sectional study was conducted with a modified Nordic Musculoskeletal Questionnaire (NMQ) to assess the prevalence of disorder occurred. A self-administered questionnaire in regional language was prepared and distributed among 380 full time handloom workers. The subjects are randomly selected from twenty three handloom industry situated across Kerala state in India. The demographics of workers were reported in the first part of the article. The prevalence of WMSDs at nine body regions for the last 12-months are analysed and reported in the next part. The lower back was the most prevalent body region (61.77%), followed by hip (53.74%), elbow (51.52 %,), neck (44.32%), upper back (38.78%), shoulder (35.46%), knee (34.90%), ankle (22.16%), and wrist (14.96%). WMSD symptoms at body regions were positively associated with the factors gender, age, duration of employment, section of work and BMI. The data collected were analysed by SPSS V20.0 package.

Keywords: Handloom industry workers, Prevalence, Ergonomics, Work related musculoskeletal disorders