Examining the Relationship between Psychosocial Work Factors and Musculoskeletal Discomfort among Computer Users in Malaysia

With computers rapidly carving a niche in virtually every nook and crevice of today's fast-paced society, mus­culoskeletal disorders are becoming more prevalent among computer users, which comprise a wide spectrum of the Ma­laysian population, including office workers. While extant literature depicts extensive research on musculoskeletal dis­orders in general, the five dimensions of psychosocial work factors (job demands, job conten-tment, job control, com­puter-related prob­lems and social interaction) attributed to work-related musculoskeletal disorders have been neglected. This study exam­ines the aforementioned elements in detail, pertaining to their relationship with musculoskeletal disor­ders, focusing in particu­lar, on 120 office workers at Malaysian public sector organizations, whose jobs require intensive computer usage. Research was conducted between March and July 2009 in public service organizations in Malaysia. This study was conducted via a survey utilizing self-complete questionnaires and diary. The relationship between psychosocial work fac­tors and musculoskeletal discomfort was ascertained through regression analyses, which revealed that some factors were more important than others were. The results indicate a significant relationship among psychosocial work factors and musculoskeletal discomfort among computer users. Several of these factors such as job control, computer-related problem and social interaction of psychoso­cial work factors are found to be more important than others in musculoskeletal discomfort. With computer usage on the rise among users, the prevalence of musculoskeletal discomfort could lead to unneces­sary disabilities, hence, the vital need for greater attention to be given on this aspect in the work place, to alleviate to some extent, potential problems in future.