Abstract
Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate prevalence of work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSDs) as well as the contribution of personal and ergonomic factors to the occurrence of low back pain among Chinese flight baggage porters, in order to provide them with valuable suggestions for intervention.
Methods: Cluster sampling was conducted among flight baggage porters in an airport and a self-developed questionnaire was distributed to 550 flight baggage porters to collect information on musculoskeletal symptoms and relevant factors. Prevalence of work-related musculoskeletal disorders in different parts of the body were calculated. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression analysis were carried out to evaluate the influence of individual and ergonomic factors on the occurrence of regional musculoskeletal symptoms in the past 12 months.
Results: The results showed that the prevalence of lower back pain, neck pain, hand/wrist pain and shoulder pain among these porters were 62.7%, 38.1%, 35.2% and 32.4%, respectively. The results of logistic regression suggested that factors as “smoking behavior”, “bending amplitude of back”, “turn around frequently”, “turn and bend at the same time frequently”, “exercise after work” and “labor intensity” were statistically correlated with low back pain, whose ORs were 1.699, 0.762, 1.716, 8.267, 3.645, 2.508, respectively.
Conclusion: Airport porters are a group of workers at high risk of WMSDs. Some habitual and postural factors were recognized to be associated with low back pain. It is recommended to reduce labor intensity, train on proper postures, as well as develop good habits to prevent low back pain.
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Wang, J. et al. (2019). Work-Related Musculoskeletal Disorders and Risk Factors: A Cross-Sectional Study Among Chinese Flight Baggage Handlers. In: Bagnara, S., Tartaglia, R., Albolino, S., Alexander, T., Fujita, Y. (eds) Proceedings of the 20th Congress of the International Ergonomics Association (IEA 2018). IEA 2018. Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing, vol 820. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-96083-8_28
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-96083-8_28
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