Investigating the Prevalence of Musculoskeletal Disorders and Related Factors in Paddy Farmers

Musculoskeletal disorders are among the most common causes of injury and disability. Farm workers are at higher risk for these disorders due to hard physical work. In this study, the prevalence and factors related to musculoskeletal disorders were investigated in paddy workers in Golestan province, 2020.

The samples of this cross-sectional study were 220 people who were selected by cluster sampling. Data, including demographic and occupational information, and the prevalence of work-related musculoskeletal disorders were collected using the Persian version of Dutch Musculoskeletal Disorders (DMQ) and analyzed in SPSS V25.

The mean age of participants was 46.28 years and 163 (74.1%) were men. The highest frequent musculoskeletal pain was reported to be low back pain in the past year and past week (58.6% and 40.5%, respectively). Significant direct relationships were observed between age and total health (r= 0.141), musculoskeletal health (r= 0.381), and low back pain (r= 0.261). Findings showed significant differences between the scores of men and women in performing duties, work load, work schedule, breaks, and working condition (P < 0.05).

Providing educations to paddy workers and mechanizing their activities could decrease the severity of exposure to risk factors for musculoskeletal disorders.