Journal of Health and Safety at Work

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Introduction: Workers employed in outdoor occupations such as farm working, especially during rice harvest, are exposed to hot and humid environments that put them at risk for different kinds of heat-related disorders or heat stress. The aim of this study was to determine the susceptibility to heat-related disorders and prevention methods among a group of agriculture workers in one of the northern cities in Iran.

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Method and Materials: This study is a descriptive-analytical and cross-sectional study which was done among 340 agricultures workers in a city (Sorkhrood) in Mazandaran province. The samples were collected from 42 villages using two stage cluster-randomized sampling method. The data were collected by means of tailor-made data collection sheet and analyzed using descriptive statistical indexes and Chi- square test, and p<0.05 was considered as significant.

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Results: The findings indicated that the mean values of age and years of experience were 42.8 and 26 years, respectively. Almost half of the agriculture workers were overweight or obese, 34% illiterate, and 15% encountered chronic illnesses. Ninety five percent of the workers were not informed about prehydration in hot environment and none of them know about the consumption of electrolytes. According to Chi-square test result, there were no significant differences between the prevalence of headache as one of the early signs of heat –related disorders and other related factors.

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Conclusion: According to the results, agriculture workers based on their age distribution, education, body mass index, health knowledge, drug use and incidence of chronic diseases, are very vulnerable to heat-related disorders. Therefore, training on recognizing the early signs and doing control measures as essential element in heat stress prevention should be seriously considered.

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Introduction: Needlestick (NSI) is a known serious treat and occupational exposure among health care workers especially nurses. Since nurses are the biggest part of healthcare workers, and considerable percent of NSI are preventable, we decided to determine frequency of NSI and some related occupational factors among a group of them.

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Methods and Materials: This cross-sectional project was conducted among all the nurses (340 nurses with at least one year work experience) in Babol and Amirkola educational and private hospitals (in north of Iran). The data were gathered by means of a tailor-made data collection sheet including personal information and some occupational effective factors, during autumn and winter. The data were analyzed with descriptive statistical indexes and Chi-square test.

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Results: Our result showed that the relative frequency of NSI among the nurses group (the mean age of nurses was 33.8±7.7 years old and the mean work experience was 10.3±8 years) was 59.7 percent. Chi-square test result indicated that there were significant differences between NSI in different groups of some personal and occupational factors including age, years of experience, training condition, and needle recapping(p<0.05).

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Conclusion: According to positive effects of training and negative effects of incorrect working habits, repetition and completion of occupational education is necessary.

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Introduction: Because of some important advantages such as creation job opportunities and providing raw material for some industries, animal husbandry plays an important role in Iran. According to the work force statistics, there are considerable number of employees working in animal husbandries sections. However, there is few information concerning cattle husbandry unit sanitations and workers health and safety condition. The aim of this project was to investigate the health and safety condition of cattle husbandry units and their workers in Babol.

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Material and Method: This cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted among all the traditional and industrial cattle husbandry units (n=52) in the rural area of Babol city during winter 2010. The data were collected from all of the active cattle husbandry units, and inactive units were omitted from the sample list. The data were gathered by means of tailor-made data collection sheet through an interview and direct inspection done by the environmental health technicians. The data analyzed using descriptive statistical indexes and Chi- square test, and p<0.05 was considered as significant.

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Result: The findings indicated that the mean value of years of work experience was 15.1±12.9 years and 30% of workers were illiterate. Immunization against tetanus was 43%. Only one fourth of the workers had health card and 36% had periodic medical examinations. More than 55% of the participants had not passed health and safety orientation courses. Almost half of the workers experienced work related accidents and 60% of the units had no hygienic toilets. According to Chi-square test result, there were significant statistical correlations between the level of education and years of experience by complying with some health and safety rules.

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Conclusion: Our results indicated that, more attention should be given to educational programs about health issues and a serious supervision of health legislations is necessary.

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Introduction: Researches show that workplace quality play important role in developing job involvement. The purpose of this study was to determine the predicted power of job involvement by perceived supervisor support and perceived coworker support.

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Material and Method: This research was a cross-sectional study. The participants consisted of 189 employees from Isfahan Steel Company in 2012 and they were selected according to the stratified random sampling method and responded questionnaires about demographic characteristics, perceived supervisor support, perceived coworker support and job involvement. Data was analyzed using Pearson correlation coefficient and regression analysis.

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Result: The results showed that there were significant relationships between perceived supervisor support and perceived coworker support with job involvement (p<0.05). Also, results indicated that the variables of perceived supervisor support and perceived coworker support significantly predicted almost 13% and 11% of job involvement variance (p<0.05).

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Conclusion: The research results maintain the importance of psycho-social variables in predicting job involvement in workers.

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Introduction: PAHs are organic compounds with benzenic rings that releas from hot asphalt as incomplete combusting. These compounds are one of the major concern in scientific societies, workplace and environment due to their stability, bioaccumulation, carcinogenic and mutagenic effects. Since asphalt workers are exposed to PAHs frequently in their job, in this study it was attempted to evaluate respiratory exposure of asphalt workers to PAHs in their breathing zone.

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Material and Method: In this study air samples of the asphalt workers were collected in accordance with the NIOSH 5506 method using PTFE filter and XAD-2 adsorbent. The ultrasonic bath and acetonithrile are used in order to extract the analytes from the filter and adsorbent. Also, the samples were analyzed by HPLC-UV.

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Result: In all samples, Finisher assistance and oilman with 1754.48 ng/m3 , 24.65 ng/m3 had maximum and minimum exposed to ∑PAH, respectively. Among the PAHs compounds, which asphalt workers exposed to, Naphtalene had the highest concentration. Among different asphalt workers tasks, screedman expoused to PAHs, had a significant difference.

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Conclusion: Evaluation of Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons concentrations in the breathing zone of asphalt workers indicated that exposure to these compounds were below the occupational exposure limits recommended by NIOSH, OSAH, ACGIH and Iranian OEL. Due to the highly carcinogenic potential of some of these compounds and absence of occupational exposure limits for these compounds, likes Chrysene and Benzo (a) Anthracene, it is strictly recommended to employ engineering controls and using suitable PPEs. This study also indicated that the exposure to PAHs in the most asphalt workers tasks had significant differences, and it can be due to proximity of the workers to the source of hot asphalt and also exposure to the exhaust gases that releasesd from the construction machinery.

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Introduction: Outdoor workers are exposed to heat from solar radiation and the atmospheric conditions, in addition to the heat from the working process, which is worse by global warming. The purpose of this study was to evaluate heat stress based on wet bulb globe temperature index and also to examine the relationship between WBGT and physiological indices among outdoor workers of Shabestar city.

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Material and Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in August 2014. WBGT measurements were taken according to ISO7243 standard in different hours. The physiological response of 53outdoor workers (including heart rate, systolic and diastolic blood pressure, oral temperature, and skin temperature) were measured among9occupationalgroups, including municipal workers, concrete makers, porters, construction and road making workers, stonemasons, farmers, traffic officers, and street vendors.

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Result: The mean WBGT index for all outdoor workers, except for municipal workers, street vendors, traffic officers and stonemason, was greater than threshold limit. The highest average WBGT index was for construction workers and the lowest was for municipal workers (respectively 27 and 26 °C). Moreover, a significant direct association was reported between the WBGT index and physiological parameters (P <0.0001), with the highest correlation coefficient belonged to heart rate (r=0.492).

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Conclusion: According to WBGT index, porters, Concrete makers, construction and road makers, and farmers had the highest exposure at all times of the day while the lowest level was related to municipal workers. What is more, heat stress showed a significant correlation with the study strains. Therefore, it is essential to conduct further research and in order to represent preventive countermeasures for the workers in this field.

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Introduction: The bank employees usually require the use of computers for long duration in a static position to get the work done. The present study aimed to evaluate the risk factors for musculoskeletal disorder using the ROSA method among the employees of Sepah Bank. An ergonomic intervention was also performed in order to improve the working conditions.

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Material and Methods: This interventional descriptive-analytical study was carried out among 165 office employees of central building of Sepah Bank. Using random sampling, the subjects were initially divided into two groups of case and control. Before and after the intervention, ROSA method and Nordic questionnaire was respectively used to evaluate the risk factors that cause musculoskeletal disorders and the prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders. The data were collected two weeks prior the interventions and 9 months after the interventions. SPSS software version 16 was utilized for data analysis and the effectiveness of intervention was determined.

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Results: Before the intervention, the mean ROSA scores of all groups' workstations were above 5 with high risk. The results obtained 9 months after the interventions manifested a statistically significant decrease (P<0.001) in the ROSA mean scores and its components in the groups who received the interventions. 9 months after the intervention, the prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders among the subjects who had received intervention showed a significant reduction, as well (0.001> p).

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Conclusion: Using the ROSA technique was seemed to be beneficialto assess the ergonomic risk factors of office works, and the deficiencies in the workstation can be identified through this method. Moreover,by design and implementation of an educational intervention program along with engineering interventions which comply with the elements of this technique, the defects can be eliminated.

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Introduction: In theexperienceof pain,thesensory andthe emotional components should be considered. Emotionalcomponents of the painincludea variety of emotional states which depression is the most importantone. Thus, in this study, first, musculoskeletal pain was compared between depressedand non-depressed industrial workersand then otherphysical anddemographicfactorsinfluencing thedepression andmusculoskeletal disorderwere studied.
 

Method and material: Thiscross-sectional and descriptive-analytical study was conductedin 2012, among 179 industrial workers in Shiraz city.In this study,the participantswere selected throughcensus.The data collection instruments were three questionnaires including Body Discomfort Chart (BDC), visual analogue scale type, Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and demographic informationquestionnaire. The collected data were analyzed using SPSSsoftware version 16. Mann-Whitney and Kruskal-Wallis statistical tests wereemployedfor comparison of variables and Kendall correlationwas used for determining the relationship between variables.
 

Results: Findings of the study showed that the maximum (19%) and the minimum (3.4%) painwere belonged to back and arm/forearm, respectively. Furthermore, 36.2% of participantshad a low-to-acute level of depression. Comparison of musculoskeletal disorders betweendepressed and non-depressed workers with Mann-Whitney Test manifested a significant different in head/neck, back,left hand/wrist,right hip and knee (p<0.05).Also Kruskal Wallis statistical test showed no significant differences in depression levelamong various occupational groups,however, painsignificantly differed among various groupsin a way that its rate was higher for office workers,comparing to other groups.
 

Conclusion: The higher score of depression among workerswith musculoskeletal pain can be due to failure in pain relief achievement. Psychological problemsthatoccurfollowingchronicpainarerelated to continuous discomfort, frustration and thinking about the pain. This situation causes the feelings of inadequacy and inefficiency and consequently the increase ofprobability of depression.

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Background: High prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders have been reported by office workers due to the nature of their work. This study aimed to evaluate the prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders in a group of office workers and also to determine the ergonomics risk factors affecting these disorders.
 

Methods: This is a cross-sectional study, performed among 174 office workers in Kerman city, Iran. Data collection tools included demographic and organization information form, the Nordic Musculoskeletal Questinnaire (NMQ), and the Rapid Office Strain Assessment (ROSA) method. The gathered data were analyzed by SPSS software version 16 using descriptive statistics, chi-square test, and logistic regression.
 

Findings: The prevalence of symptoms of musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) in the past 12 months was reported 60.4 percent. What is more, significant associations were observed between job tenure and hours a day using computer with MSDs (P-value<0.05). In this sense, with  one unit increase in job tenure (years) and duration of computer use (hours per day), the probability of incidence of MSDs gone up 17.2 percent and 15.8 percent, respectively. Based on the statistical chi-square test, a significant relationship was reported between the incidence of MSDs and Rapid Office Strain Assessment method (P-value<0.05).
 

Conclution: According to results, ROSA assessment method is an efficient tool in the classification and identification of factors affecting the incidence of MSDs among office workers. Performing corrective measures in the dangerous work stations (the second level identified by ROSA technique), reducing the duration of computer use per day, and doing regular sport activities can be noted in order to decrease the prevalence of MSDs in the study group (office workers).

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Introduction: Lead exposure is considered as a global health problem. The irreparable harmful effects of this heavy metal on human have been proven in various studies. Comparing to general population, workers in related industries are more exposed to lead. Several studies have investigated lead occupational exposure and its biological evaluation in Iran; however there is no overall estimate. Thus, the present study was conducted to determine the occupational exposure to lead and its biological evaluation in Iranian workers, using systematic review and meta-analysis.

Material and Method: This study was carried out based on information obtained from databases including Magiran, Iranmedex, SID, Medlib, Trials Register, Scopus, Pubmed, Science Direct, Cochran, Embase, Medline, Web of Science, Springer, Online Library Wiley, and Google Scholar from 1991 to 2016, using standard key words. All of the reviewed papers which met the inclusion criteria have been evaluated. Data combination was performed according to Random Effects Model using Stata software version 11.1.

Result: In the 34 qualified studies, the mean blood lead level (BLL) concentration in Iranian workers was estimated 42.8µg/dl (95% CI: 35.15-50.49). The minimum and maximum BLL were belonged to west (28.348µg/dl) and center (45.928µg/dl) regions of Iran, respectively. Considering different occupations, the lowest mean value was reported in textile industry workers (12.3 µg/dl), while the highest value was for zinc-lead mine workers (72.6 µg/dl). Mean breathing air lead level of Iranian workers reported in 4 studies was estimated 0.23 mg/m3 (95% CI: 0.14-0.33).

Conclusion: According to the high concentration of BLL and breathing air, it is recommended to increase protective measures and frequent screening. Scheduled clinical and paraclinical examination should also be performed for workers.

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Introduction: Physical workload is one of the main risk factors in developing of musculoskeletal disorders in construction workers. The current study was carried out to determine the prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders and its relationship with demographic characteristics and physical work load index (PWLI)in construction workers.  
Material and Methods: This investigation was a descriptive and cross-sectional study in which 162 subjects including 75 rebar and 87 bricklayer workers were participated. Nordic musculoskeletal and physical workload questionnaires were employed as the tools of this study. Chi-squared and logistic regression tests were used for statistical analysis in SPSS 21 software.
Results: The mean of age and working experience of construction workers were 34.6±8.6 and 11.2±6.8 years, respectively. The most prevalent symptoms were in the body regions of upper back (57.4%), lower back (35.8%), and neck (30.2%). In the univariate analysis, the musculoskeletal symptoms of shoulders, low back, feet, knees, and thighs with PWLI and the upper back pain with age, working experience, and working hours had significant relationships (P<0.05). According to logistic regression analysis, with the increase of the value of PWLI to more than 90 percentile, the chance of having symptoms of musculoskeletal disorders in low back, knees, and feet and also with the increase of working hour to more than 8 hours, the chance of having symptoms in low back and feet increased significantly.
Conclusion: The prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders was high in the studied construction workers. Most of the musculoskeletal symptoms were correlated with PWLI. Therefore, PWLI could be used to determine the construction jobs with the high risk of musculoskeletal disorders. To reduce the symptoms of musculoskeletal disorders in construction workers, the reduction of sources of physical workloads such as heavy material handling and awkward postures are proposed. It is also recommended that the working hours be limited to less than 8 hours.

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Introduction: Among the pollutants present in the ceramic and tile industry, silica dust is particularly important, and many studies have investigated the effect of this material on the respiratory system. Many occupational exposures may result in a decrease in spirometric parameters.
Materials and Methods: In the present study, totally, 120 male workers and employees of the factory, who had work experience of over 5 years and were not changed during the study, were included. Demographic information, including age, height, weight, work experience, smoking status and spirometric indices,  were extracted from the medical records of the workers from different groups for 5 consecutive years. All spirometry tests were performed using the FUKUDA ST 300 digital spirometer (Italy) calibrated once a year. The generalized Estimation Equation (GEE) method was used to study the trend of changes in each of the spirometric indices more accurately. Research related data were analyzed using SPSS software version 23.
Results: The trend of changes was only significant for the FEV1 / FVC and FEF indices; for other indexes, the trend of changes was only observed in some years. The trend of changes was not significant for the FEV1 index, but smoking had a significant effect on the changes in this index. So, the level of this index was lower for cigarette smokers.
Conclusion: In this study, a clear downward trend was not found in the spirometric indices over 5 years, and only the FEF1 / FVC and FEF 2575% indices markedly were reduced in some occupational units, but due to the decline in some indices as well as proving the bad effect of Silica dust and other compounds on the respiratory system, there was an urgent need to implement management and engineering controls and protect the workers in the workplaces

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Introduction. The effect of exercise program on the prevention of upper extremities musculoskeletal disorders has attracted the attention of researchers. On the other hand, in assembly workers, the risk of these disorders increases because the part of the body is used successively and without rest. The current study investigates the effect of 8 weeks of Kinesio Taping and sport program on grip endurance in female assembly workers of an electrical piece industrial manufacturer.
Materials and Methods. The current study was used a descriptive-analytic, cross-sectional method among 40 female assembly workers. Participants are exercised and used Kinesio taping for two times per week at eight weeks. The endurance of the grip was determined before and after the intervention by a dynamometer and the maximum time (in seconds) that one was able to continue one third of the maximum voluntary contraction. The DASH questionnaire was used to assess upper limb extremities’ disability. Data were analyzed using SPSS Ver.20 and the P value was considered smaller than 0.05.
Results. In the present study, the mean of right and left hand grip endurance in kinesio type and exercise group before intervention were obtained 10.55 and 9.51, whereas, related results after intervention were obtained 20.55 and 16.18, respectively. Also the score of upper limb disability in kinesio type and exercise group before intervention were obtained 10.55 and 9.51 and after intervention obtained 20.55 and 16.18, respectively(P <0.05).
Conclusion. According to the results, sport exercise and kinesio taping, lead to the increase in the grip endurance time and decrease in the upper limb disability.

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Introduction: Prevention of occupational accidents is of a great importance. Analysis of accidents and their causes could prevent the accidents recurrence. The study objective was to investigate the causes of occupational accidents in a dispatching project.
Material and method:  This research is descriptive-analytic. Data were extracted from the reports of occupational near-misses and accidents recorded between 2013 and 2017 and analyzed using Tripod-Beta model. Then direct, indirect and root causes of the accidents were identified. Based on the causes identified, a questionnaire was developed to analyze the workers’ mental patterns in relation to the real causes, and Friedman test was used to rank the causes.
Results: The results showed the falling/dropped objects hit a person, inappropriate working conditions and lack of safety trainings were, respectively, the most important direct, indirect and root causes as per the analysis results. The leakage of flammable and explosive substances, hazardous conditions in the workplace and discrimination in rewards were the most important causes from the employees’ views.
Conclusion: Identifying and ranking the most important causes of accidents would help to prevent the occurrence of similar events. Also, the analysis of the causes based on the employees’ mental patterns could be effective in the prevention of accidents.

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Introduction: Musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) are prevalent in work settings and are associated with high rate of prevalence and costs. Musculoskeletal conditions have multifaceted nature, and occupational factors play an important role in their development. The aim of this study was to identify the risk factors of work-related musculoskeletal disorders in the working population in Iran during 2000 to 2015.
Material and Methods: Using the appropriate search terms, articles published in the journals, student thesis, and those presented at the conferences were searched through authentic English databases (Google Scholar, Scopus, PubMed) and Farsi ones (Magiran, SID, IranMedex, Irandoc). Following removal of duplicate citations and irrelevant studies, the full texts of the remaining publications were prepared and assessed for more detail.
Results: Perceived discomfort in low back region obtained the highest score in workers of industrial, administrative, service, and agricultural settings. However, in the handicraft and educational groups, the highest percentage of discomfort was belonged to neck (66.7%). Findings showed that the most commonly used techniques for evaluation of musculoskeletal disorders and risk factors were, respectively, Nordic questionnaire (NMQ) (76%) and REBA (13.9%). Moreover, all identified risk factors were classified into eleven groups including: biomechanical, work environment design, tools, equipment, temporal aspects of job design, job content, organizational aspects, economic and financial issues, social aspects, individual characteristics, and training.
Conclusion: Overall, a wide range of risk factors reported in the previous studies were categorized in the present review. The results are suggested to be considered by managers and decision makers as a framework to take measures for controlling musculoskeletal disorders to accomplish the goal of ergonomics, which is productivity and well-being.

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Introduction: Prevention of heat-related diseases requires the participation of the workers. For this reason, the aim of this study was the development and validation of the tools for evaluating awareness and practice related to heat stress among the workers of warm workplaces.
Material and Methods: The various items and factors related to the awareness and practice of the workers were identified by the literature review. Then, several questions for evaluating these items were designed. In the next step, the reliability and validity of the questionnaires were appraised using calculating the content validity ratio (CVR) and content validity index (CVI), and Cronbach’s alpha coefficient, respectively. After that, these questionnaires were completed by 2338 employees of six industries in various regions of Iran. Finally, collected data were analyzed using SPSS software.
Results: In total, 77 questions, including 53 questions on awareness and 24 questions on practice in six groups of water and beverages, food, snacks and additives, heat exchange, thermal strain risk factors, clothing and heat protection equipment, and heat-related disorders and body reactions, were designed. The values of content validity index (CVI) of remained questions in the questionnaires of awareness and practice were equal to 0.954 and 0.824, respectively. The values of Cronbach’s alpha coefficients of these questionnaires were calculated by 0.755 and 0.716, respectively. The values of the chi-square divided by degrees of freedom (CMIN/DF) and root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) in the construction of the awareness questionnaire were computed as 4.58 and 0.079, respectively. These values in the construction of the practice questionnaire were calculated by 2.33 and 0.084, respectively.
Conclusion: The results showed that the designed questionnaires had appropriate reliability and validity and could be used to evaluate the awareness and practice in warm workplaces.

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Introduction: Covid-19 pandemic has imposed a significant effect on mental health of the health care workers. The present systematic review and meta-analysis aimed at determining the pooled prevalence of anxiety and depression among Iranian health care workers during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Material and Methods: To conduct this systematic review and meta-analysis, Web of Science, Scopus, Medline (PubMed), Embase, SID, Magiran databases and Google Scholar search engine were investigated to find studies over the prevalence of anxiety and depression among health care workers during the Covid-19 pandemic from December 2019 to June 10, 2021. Quality of the primary studies was assessed using the Newcastle-Ottawa tool and the random effects model was applied to estimate the pooled prevalence. Furthermore, χ2 test and I2 index were used to evaluate the degree of heterogeneity among the studies. The pooled prevalence of anxiety and depression in different subgroups was reported based on the severity of anxiety and depression, assessment tools, and staff jobs.
Results: Of 488 articles obtained as a result of the initial search, 10 related studies were identified and entered into the systematic review and meta-analysis. The pooled prevalence of anxiety was 42% (95% CI: 25-75) and the pooled prevalence of depression was 35% (95% CI: 19-55). The pooled prevalence of anxiety was 54% (95% CI: 39-70) in the occupational group of nurses and 29% (95% CI: 17-44) among all health care workers. The pooled prevalence of depression was 46% (95% CI: 30 to 63) and 17% (95% CI: 10 to 26) among nurses and all health workers, respectively.
Conclusion: According to the findings, a high prevalence of anxiety and depression was observed among the health care workers of Iran during the Covid-19 epidemic. The authorities are required to plan for preventive and therapeutic interventions to reduce the psychological burden of the epidemic.

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Introduction: The purpose of the current study was to predict the percentage of the sway index from the static balance point based on the anthropometric dimensions of construction workers.
Material and Methods: This descriptive-analytical study was conducted on 114 construction workers. First, the construction workers were asked to complete the demographic questionnaire and the inclusion criteria were determined. Then, the anthropometric dimensions were measured. Afterward, the static balance of participants was assessed with their open eyes and standing position using a Stabilometer device. The obtained data were analyzed using Pearson correlation and multiple linear regression.
Results: 29.8% of construction workers were in weak and very weak classes in terms of static balance. The Pearson and spearman’s correlation coefficient showed a significant relationship between age, weight, and sway index of individuals. In addition, multiple linear regression showed that age, weight, and foot surface of construction workers can predict the percentage of the sway index from the static balance point among construction workers.
Conclusion: The results of the current study indicated that demographic information such as age, anthropometric parameters of weight, and foot surface are effective factors on static balance in a healthy construction workers’ community with a normal body mass index.

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Introduction: Musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) have a multifactorial nature. Biomechanical factors are one of the most important factors. Consequently, the precise identification of effective factors plays a significant role in controlling and preventing these disorders. Therefore, the current study aimed to identify the awkward upper body postures and their effect on the prevalence of MSDs in office workers in both women and men groups by objective methods.
Material and Methods: In this cross-sectional study, the participants were 36 office workers (18 women and 18 men). The prevalence of musculoskeletal discomfort was evaluated using the Nordic questionnaire. The upper limbs posture, including the back, neck, and wrists, was evaluated continuously with an electronic inclinometer and an electrogoniometer for 30 min, followed by analyzing the collected data.
Results: The results revealed that the highest prevalence of musculoskeletal symptoms in both gender groups was in the neck (58.33%), trunk (52.77%), and wrist (47.22%), respectively. The results disclosed that the median trunk and neck flexion in both groups is over 20° and the posture angle in women is higher than that of men (P<0.05). The results showed that pain and discomfort in the trunk and neck in both gender groups have a significant relationship with the median posture angle (P<0.05). Also, the wrist posture in both gender groups during work was in extension and static condition.
Conclusion: Based on the results of this study, the prevalence of disorders in women was higher than in men. Although the tasks performed in both groups were similar, the assessment of postures disclosed that women office workers had more awkward postures in the trunk and neck than men. In both groups, the prevalence of musculoskeletal discomfort had a significant relationship with awkward postures in the trunk and neck. According to the results of the current study, ergonomic interventions are recommended to reduce awkward postures and to prevent MSDs, particularly among women office workers.