Perceived demands and musculoskeletal disorders among hospital nurses

Excessive physical and psychological demands on nurses may lead to high rates of musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs). This study was conducted a) to determine the prevalence of MSDs among hospital nurses of Shiraz University of Medical Sciences (SUMS) and b) to examine the relationship between perceived demands and reported MSDs in different body regions of hospital nurses. In a cross-sectional survey, data were collected anonymously from 641 randomly selected registered nurses with at least one year of job tenure in nursing from 12 hospitals of SUMS. Nordic Musculoskeletal Disorders Questionnaire (NMQ) and Job Content Questionnaire (JCQ) were used as data collection tools. The large majority of the participants (84.4%) had experienced some form of the symptoms of musculoskeletal problems during the last 12 months. Lower back symptoms were found to be the most prevalent problem among the nurses studied with a past year prevalence of 54.9%. Perceived physical demands were significantly associated with musculoskeletal symptoms in different body regions (OR ranging from 1.5 to 2.7). No association was found between perceived psychological demands and reported symptoms. Based on the findings, it can be concluded that any interventional program for preventing musculoskeletal problems among nurses should focus on reducing physical demands.