The prevalence of musculoskeletal pain & its associated factors among female Saudi school teachers

Abstract

Objectives: To quantify the prevalence and identify the associated factors of musculoskeletal pain among Saudi female school teachers.

Methods: An observational quantitative cross-sectional survey of female Saudi school teachers in five different areas of Saudi Arabia was carried out between August and October 2013. A self-administered questionnaire was used in which the items related to participants’ demographic information and pain information were included. A numeric pain rating scale was used for patient self-reporting of pain. Data analysis was carried out using SPSS Pc+ version 21.0 statistical software.

Results: Four hundred and eighty six female school teachers responded to the survey. Severe Low back pain was reported by 38.1% of teacher, followed by knee pain (26.3%), heel (24.1%), shoulder (20.6%), upper back (17.7%), hip joint (16.5%),ankle (12.3%), neck (11.3%). Sever pain of elbow (5.6%) and wrist (7.4%) was the least reported. Pain affected work at school in 46.1% of school teachers. A combination of variables: body mass index, Vitamin D deficiency, teaching level, presence of chronic illness, were found to be significantly associated with musculoskeletal pain.

Conclusion: The results of self-reported prevalence of musculoskeletal pain among female Saudi school teachers is useful to educate the school teachers for adequate care so as to prevent these pains. There is a need for the higher authorities to address this issue and implement intervention programs to alleviate the pain and suffering of these school teachers.

doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.12669/pjms.306.5778

How to cite this:Abdulmonem A, Hanan A, Elaf A, Haneen T, Jenan A. The prevalence of musculoskeletal pain & its associated factors among female Saudi school teachers. Pak J Med Sci 2014;30(6):1191-1196.   doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.12669/pjms.306.5778

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.