Evaluating the Prevalence of Musculoskeletal Disorders in Drivers Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

Work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSDs) are any disorders or injuries to the musculoskeletal system due to working procedure or conditions. WMSDs is one of the main causes of occupational injuries and disability in advanced and developing countries. The present study was conducted to evaluate the prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders in drivers in order to achieve complete results with high statistical power, using meta-analysis method.

This study is a systematic review and meta-analysis. In this study, the articles extracted from national and international databases, including Scientific Information Database (SID), Science Direct, PubMed (using the word MESH), Pre Quest, Scopus, Google Scholar, Iran Medix, SID, and MedLib. The main keywords for the search were Prevalence, Musculoskeletal and Drivers. The time for selecting articles was from 2000 to 2017. Data were analyzed using meta-analysis (random effect model). I2 and Q indexes were used to calculate heterogeneity. All statistical analysis was performed using STATA 14 software.

In this study, 22 articles were entered into the meta-analysis process. The sample size was 7706 people with mean of 350 people in each study. The prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders in different organs of drivers was as follows: 26.19% (CI: 38-14.30), 18.07% (CI: 25.99-10.16), and 5.75% (CI: 8.273.22) in neck, shoulder, wrist / hand, and elbow respectively. The highest prevalence was related to low back pain 41.63% (confindence Interval (CI): 33.09-50.17), and the lowest prevalence was related to elbow disorder 7.45% with (CI: 95.46-9.43). The significance level was set at 0.05.

The results of this study show that the prevalence of pains in the back, neck, and shoulder are high among drivers. Also, due to the high prevalence of predicting the incidence of impaired driving. in order to control and reduce these disorders, appropriate design of seats and equipment of vehicles, conducting periodic examinations of drivers,performing proper exercise, and considering adequate rest time in working hours are recommended. Ergonomics and occupational health education programs are also recommended to reduce the risk of developing musculoskeletal disorders associated with driving.