Original Research Article
Year: 2020 | Month: March | Volume: 10 | Issue: 3 | Pages: 11-16
Prevalence of Musculoskeletal Disorders among Building Sweepers
Hemani Malhotra1, Manjit Kaur Chauhan2
1Associate Professor, Sir VithaldasThackersey College of Home Science (Autonomous),
SNDTWU, Juhu, Mumbai.
2Associate Professor, Post Graduate Department of Resource Management, SNDTWU, Juhu, Mumbai.
Corresponding Author: Hemani Malhotra
ABSTRACT
Work related safety and health hazards are a major public health concern worldwide. According to the World Health Organization (WHO, 1995); 58% of the global population spends one-third of their time at work during adulthood. Therefore, the issue of work related safety has gathered increasing attention in the public health domain (Kabir A et al, 2015).Sweepers are vulnerable segment of our society and limited studies have been carried out in India to study their health issues. Therefore, thepresent research has been undertaken with the objective to identify the prevalence of musculoskeletal pain among residential building sweepers. For this purpose a cross-sectional descriptive study was carried out on 60 female sweepers from residential buildings of urban Mumbai city. Awell structured questionnaire was used to study occupational activities of the females working as residential sweepers and modified Nordic Questionnaire was used to collect the MSD related information. The results showed that the musculoskeletal problem among residential sweepers was high; with majority of the female sweepers complaining of entire body pain. It was observed that 93.33%, 91.67%, 85% and 83.33% reported pain in arm, shoulder, hand/wrist and low back respectively. With respect to intensity of pain, 61.67%; 58.33% and 46.67% female sweepers complained of moderate pain in the shoulder, arm and hand respectively; and 31.67% complained of severe pain in the lower back and hand/wrist. Similarly, the frequency of pain on daily and weekly basis was more pronounced in lower back, hand/wrist, arm and shoulder. Statistical inferences drawn from the result showed that there was no correlation between MSD and intensity of pain among female sweepers; but there was a moderate, positive and significant correlation between MSD and age. A weak but positive significant correlation was found in MSD with years of experience and body weight among female sweepers. Thus, it can be concluded that since female sweepers experienced a number of musculoskeletal problems; some major ergonomic guidelines on safety and interventions to improve the design of working tools and conditions needs to be implemented at the earliest to minimize their problems.
Key words: Musculoskeletal problems, sweepers, pain, safety