Prevalence of work related musculoskeletal disorders among construction workers in Hayatabad Peshawar KP, Pakistan

Abstract

Introduction: Construction is one the blue-collar jobs where individuals are prone to sustain musculoskeletal injuries. As a result, construction workers are forced in abandoning their work prematurely causing a significant burden on the community. Little is known about the frequency of these injuries in construction workers involved in construction industry of Hayatabad and therefore, this survey was designed.

Material & Method: A cross sectional study was conducted at seven different construction sites in Hayatabad Peshawar. To collect data, questionnaire was completed from 300 construction workers. Questionnaire consists of two sections involving demographic characteristics and modified Nordic questionnaire for assessing musculoskeletal injuries. SPSS version 20 was used for data analysis.

Results: Out of these 300 workers, 244 (81.3%) had symptoms in neck, shoulders, elbow, wrist/hand, upper back, lower back, hip/thigh/buttocks, knee, or ankle/feet. The majority of workers had symptoms in low back (32.83%) followed by neck (17.5%) and knee (16.19%).

Conclusion: Majority of the construction workers working at Hayatabad had musculoskeletal injuries in their back and knee joints. Pain, aching and numbness were the chief complaint among these workers.