Work-Related Musculoskeletal Disorders: A Case of Office-Based Civil Servants in Rivers State, Nigeria

Abstract

This study was carried out to investigate Work-Related Musculoskeletal Disorders (WRMDs) among office-based civil servants in selected ministries (Ministry of Education and Health) –Min-C and local government areas (Ikwerre and Obio/Akpor) LGA-C of Rivers State using 200 office-based civil servants as the study population. A lykert model response questionnaire was used as the instrument of primary data collection to investigate prevalence of WRMDs among the study population. The data obtained were analyzed using Kendall’s coefficient of concordance (w). The w-values for general office ergonomic awareness were 0.271 (27.1%) for LGA-C and 0.739 (73.9%) for Min-C while that of workstation ergonomics awareness were 0.297(29.7%) and 0.323(32.3%) for LGA-C and Min-C, respectively. When Workstation Ergonomic Practice was considered the w-values for LGA-C were 0.771 (77.1%) and 0.9896 (99%) for Min-C while that of Musculoskeletal Disorder/Pain complaints were 0.995 (99.5%) for LGA-C and 0.992 (99.2%) for Min-C. These values suggest that there is low level of ergonomics awareness and practice, and high prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders/pains among the study population. The study also indicates that the most affected body regions were waist, back, and neck.