Determine of prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders and risk assessment with PATH method on Estahban fig orchard workers

Musculoskeletal disorders are one of the major causes of discomfort and disability among farmers. Among of the ergonomic evaluation methods, PATH method is one of the recommended ergonomic evaluation methods for farmers. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders and risk assessment in fig orchard workers. The study was conducted descriptive-analytical and cross-sectional on fig orchards workers. Nordic and Demographic questionnaire was used to prevalence determine of musculoskeletal disorders. Data were analyzed using SPSS-16 software. Mann-Whitney test was used to compare the means. The results showed that age mean of the workers was 47.5 ± 14.4 years. The most disturbances were related to knee, bottom and back of their body (37.6% and 28.2% respectively). There was a correlation between the work backward and pains of the body, and those with more work backward had more difficult knee pains (P = 0.005). Severe flexion in the worker's trunk was most difficult by using of obtained results from the PATH method (prevalance 57.8%). The prevalence of symptoms of musculoskeletal disorders in workers of fig orchard is high, that indicate their environmental and working conditions, and inappropriate of their body postures are injurious, therefore corrective actions are necessary to improve of working postures