Effect of Educational Intervention Based on the Ergonomic Principles of Working with Computers in Promoting Behaviors Preventing Musculoskeletal Disorders among Health Care Providers

Health care providers working in comprehensive health centers are considered as one of the main computer users and are subject to musculoskeletal disorders caused by computer work. This study was conducted to determining the effect of educational intervention based on the ergonomic principles of working with computers on knowledge, attitude and practice of health care providers working in comprehensive health centers of Sirjan , Iran.

This study was performed with 110 health care providers working in comprehensive health centers of Sirjan. Census method was used for sampling. A man-made questionnaire was used to assess the effect of education on the improvement of behaviors preventing the MSD caused by working with computers. The training program in the intervention group consisted of three one-hour sessions. Data were collected at the beginning and 3 months after the intervention; and they were analyzed using spss16 software and Chi-square, independent T-test, and Wilcoxon and Mann-Whitney tests.

According to the results, despite the homogeneity of the two groups in terms of all the variables studied, the interventional group, after education, had a significant difference in knowledge, attitude and practice regarding observing the ergonomic principles of work with computers in comparison with the control group (p < 0.0001). Furthermore, in the intervention group three months after the training, there was a significant difference in the mean score of two variables of attitude and practice.

The results of this study showed that educational programs based on ergonomic principles of working with computers can promote behaviors preventing the MSD in computer users. Therefore, educational interventions are recommended in order to improve the behaviors preventing musculoskeletal disorders.