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Relationship between Prevalence of Musculoskeletal Symptoms and Occupational and Personal Factors among Street Cleaners  

Jung, Suk-Chul (Department of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Dankook University College of Medicine)
Lee, Kyung-Sun (Department of Industrial and Information Systems Engineering, Ajou University)
Jung, Myung-Chul (Department of Industrial and Information Systems Engineering, Ajou University)
Lee, In-Seok (Department of Safety Engineering, Hankyong National University)
JungChoi, Kyung-Hee (Department of Preventive Medicine, Ewha womens University School of Medicine)
Bahk, Jin-Wook (School of Public Health, Seoul National University)
Kim, Hyun-Joo (Department of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Dankook University College of Medicine)
Publication Information
Journal of the Korean Society of Safety / v.25, no.6, 2010 , pp. 169-179 More about this Journal
Abstract
The aim of this study was to investigate occupational and individual risk factors and working conditions in relation to musculoskeletal symptoms in street cleaners. Investigation was conducted through a survey of 395 male street cleaners employed by the government office in Seoul, Gyeonggi and Chung-Nam from July to August of 2009. The control group was comprised of 143 male drivers and security guards. Risk factors for musculoskeletal symptoms in street cleaners were investigated by multiple logistic regression analysis and also evaluated ergonomic risk factors by assessing working conditions of 4 street cleaners. As a result of symptom questionnaires, all of the prevalent rates of musculoskeletal symptoms in street cleaners had significantly higher results than those of the control group(p<0.05). On binary logistic regression analysis of musculoskeletal symptoms, street cleaners showed significant higher odds ratio as 18.84(95%CI: 6.56-54.12) in the arm/elbow, 10.49(95%CI: 4.29-25.65) in the hand/wrist compared to the control group. Both absence of rest breaks and exposure to ergonomic risk factors showed to be important internal risk factors of musculoskeletal symptoms among street cleaners. The exposure levels of QEC(Quick exposures checklist) in street cleaners were revealed to be higher on the shoulder/arm, wrist/hand, and neck than back, or from stress. The findings appear to show that street cleaners were high-risk group of work-related musculoskeletal disorders. Therefore street cleaners require a holistic interventional strategy, including adequate arrangement of rest breaks, improvement of working tools and control of individual risk factors such as obesity and smoking.
Keywords
street cleaners; musculoskeletal symptoms; rest beaks; QEC;
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