Epidemiology of musculoskeletal symptoms among Korean hospital nurses. |
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| Authors: | Derek R Smith Myoung-Ae Choe Mi Yang Jeon Young Ran Chae Gyeong Ju An Jae Sim Jeong |
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| Institution: | Department of Hazard Assessment, National Institute of Industrial Health, Kawasaki, Japan. smith@niih.go.jp |
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| Abstract: | We investigated the epidemiology of musculoskeletal symptoms (MSS) among a complete cross-section of 330 nurses from a large Korean hospital, by means of a questionnaire survey (response rate: 97.9%). The prevalence of MSS at any body site was 93.6%, with symptoms most commonly reported at the shoulder (74.5%), lower back (72.4%), neck (62.7%), lower legs (52.1%) and hand/wrist (46.7%). Logistic regression indicated that nurses who undertook manual handling of patients were 7.2 times as likely to report MSS (OR 7.2, 95%CI 1.2-42.3, P = .0275), while nurses suffering from periodic depression experienced a 3.3-fold MSS risk (OR 3.3, 95%CI 1.3-8.3, P = .0104). Overall, our study suggests that Korean nurses incur a very high MSS burden when compared internationally. A greater commitment is needed to improve physical conditions, occupational tasks and psychosocial work issues among nurses in this country. |
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