Investigation of the Impact of Ergonomic Training Programs on the Prevalence of Musculoskeletal Disorders of Adminis-trative and Support Staff at Imam Reza Hospital in Mashhad, Iran

Musculoskeletal disorders are among the cumulative injuries that result from working in dangerous conditions and poor postures over several years. One of the major problems for computer users is musculoskeletal disorders. The present study investigated the effect of teaching ergonomics to computer users on the prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders.

This descriptive and cross-sectional study was performed on the administrative staff of Imam Reza (AS) hospital in Mashhad, Iran. In this study, 77 administrative and support staff were selected using the simple random sampling method. After the initial assessment of their physical condition during work, an ergonomic educational intervention program was given to the users to reduce their musculoskeletal injury factors during a three-month period. Their physical condition was assessed before and after the training using the rapid office strain assessment method. The collected data were analyzed using SPSS software (version 20).

The mean age of participants was 36.4±6.62 years old and their mean work experience was 13/8%±6.12 years. The prevalence of discomfort and pain was mainly reported in the lumbar region (57.2%) and neck (43.8%). Moreover, the highest frequency of rapid office strain assessment method score was 5 before training (42.3%), which reached 9.6% after the intervention and training of staff. The scores of 6, 3, 4, and 2 were 18.3%, 15.7%, 14.6%, and 7.1%, respectively.

The results showed the importance of teaching the principles of ergonomics for using computer systems in reducing musculoskeletal disorders. Moreover, it was found that the level of musculoskeletal disorders in this group of occupations can be minimized with proper training.