Predictive Model of Musculoskeletal Disorders in Computer Users using Artificial Neural Network

Due to the increase in the provision of electronic services to citizens in government offices, the number of computer users and the occurrence of musculoskeletal disorders have increased. Therefore, this study aimed to predict and model the complex relationships between the risk factors of musculoskeletal disorders in computer users working in government offices by an artificial neural network.

The current cross-sectional study was conducted in 2020 on 342 employees of various government offices in Saveh city. First, the researcher visited the work environment to identify the problems and measure the environmental factors. Then, ergonomic risk assessment and psychosocial factors were evaluated using the Nordic questionnaire and the ROSA method. The effect of various factors in causing musculoskeletal disorders was investigated using a logistic regression test.Then the resulting data were collected and modeled by one of the neural network algorithms. Finally, artificial neural networks presented an optimal model to predict the risk of musculoskeletal disorders.

The results showed that by increasing the level of social interactions, the level of demand, control, and leadership in the job, musculoskeletal disorders in men and women decrease. There was a significant relationship between the prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders and job demand, job control levels, social interaction levels, leadership levels, organizational climate levels, job satisfaction levels, and stress levels, in addition between reports of pain in the neck and shoulder and wrist/hand region. There was a significant relationship with the overall ROSA score. Also, there was a significant relationship between the report of pain or discomfort in the neck area with the phone screen risk score, wrist/hand with the keyboard-mouse risk score, and shoulder, upper back, elbow, and lower back with the chair risk score. The accuracy of the presented model for predicting musculoskeletal disorders was also about 88.5%, which indicates the acceptability of the results.

The results showed that several factors play a role in causing musculoskeletal disorders, which include individual, environmental, psychosocial, and workstation factors. Therefore, in the design of an ergonomic workstation, the effects of the mentioned factors should be investigated. Also, predicting the effectiveness of each of the mentioned factors using an artificial neural network showed that this type of modeling can be used to prevent musculoskeletal disorders or other multifactorial disorders.