Effects of Psychosocial Factors on Prevalence of Musculoskeletal Discomfort in VDT Workers

As a result of an increase in using of computers in the occupational environments, the prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) has increased in these types of occupations. These musculoskeletal disorders also Imposes heavy financial consequences on health care systems. The aim of the present study is to evaluate the relationship between psychosocial factors and the prevalence of musculoskeletal discomfort in VDT workers.
This cross-sectional study was carried out in three cities covered by one directs of the Iranian Gas Transmission Operation during 2011 and 2012 years. In this study, all of 300 office workers in this region participated. The investigation consisted of two questionnaires, first standardized Nordic questionnaires to measure the prevalence of disorder, second ALL EMPLOEE SURVEY questionnaire to measure psychosocial factors. Statistical analyses were performed by the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences software (SPSS version 16.0). The Statistical methods used in this study include chi-square and logistic regression.
The mean age and work experience of the subjects were 7.00 ± 59.34 and 71.6 ± 56.9, respectively. The highest prevalence rate of disorder was found in the Lower back (49.7%) and neck (49.0%) regions. Results of the multiple logistic regression models show that psychosocial like work / family balance, job control, leadership, resources , customer service , co-worker support , reward , cooperation, employee development and job demands, and the individual factors like sex, BMI and education level were independently associated with prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders (p The results of the study indicated that some psychosocial factors are related to prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders. Consequently, in order to prevent or reduce musculoskeletal disorders, these factors must be considered.