Musculoskeletal Disorders among Chinese Medical Students

Abstract

We investigated the prevalence and distribution of Musculoskeletal Disorders (MSD) among Chinese medical students, by means of a questionnaire survey. A total of 207 questionnaires were successfully returned, giving a high response rate of 92.4%. The MSD period-prevalence at any body site was 67.6% in the previous year and 46.9% in the previous week. Almost one-third of them (31.9%), reported an ongoing MSD. By individual body site, the most commonly affected region was the lower back (40.1% in the last year), followed by the neck (33.8%) and shoulders (21.7%). The 7 day period-prevalence also followed a similar descending pattern, being reported by 20.8% at the lower back and 12.1% at both the neck and knees. MSD affected the daily life of students for an average period of 53.8 days, with an average of 6.6 sick days taken from school. Students reporting high mental pressure were 2.9 times more likely to suffer low back pain in the previous 12 months (OR 2.9, 95%CI 1.4-5.9, P=0.0030). Overall, our study suggests that Chinese medical students are at reasonable MSD risk, although it is probably lower than for working physicians. Further investigations are now recommended to elucidate the MSD mechanisms and contributory factors among medical students in China, as elsewhere. A longitudinal study of MSD among a complete group of medical students would be very useful in this regard.

Musculoskeletal disorders among first-year Ghanaian students in a nursing college

“…This prevalence rate is in general agreement with the prevalence rates reported in the literature for college students which vary between 32.9% and 89.3% [6][7][8][9][10][11][13][14][15][16]18,19 . It is however higher than the 32.9% 8 and 36.9% 9 reported among nursing students in Japan, and lower than the 73.3% 18 and 80.0% 19 reported among nursing students in Korea and Australia respectively, as well as the reported prevalence among nurses at the workplace (i.e 78-84.4%) [30][31][32][33] .…”

“…Despite an elevated prevalence of MSDs in this population, the prevalence of MSDs in the different body regions is lower than that reported in previous studies with similarly high prevalence rates of MSDs among college students 7,11,[13][14][15]18,19 . Besides that, the clustering pattern of MSDs particularly in the neck (28.0%), upper back (27.4%), lower back (23.6%), wrists/hand (22.9%) and hip/thigh (21.0%) observed from this study is somewhat different compared with findings in previous studies among nursing students 18,19 .…”

“…The point prevalence of MSDs in the current study is higher than the 21.5% reported among nursing students in Japan 8 . It is however comparable to the estimated 46.9% 15 and 45.7% 16 prevalence rates among medical students in China and Malaysia respectively. There is a paucity of epidemiological studies that have explored the period-prevalence, point-prevalence and functional impairment of MSDs as triadic entities in college students.…”

“…They are a major cause of severe long-term pain and disability 1,2 , productivity loss 3 and reduced quality of life 4,5 which can lead to reduced educational attainment among students. In recent years, MSDs have emerged as a public health problem among college students, with the estimated prevalence rate varying between 32.9% and 89.3% in different parts of the world [6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19] . Factors such as computer usage [10][11][12][13]17 , female sex 6,7,14,17 , lack of regular exercise 13,18 and psychosocial stress and mental pressure 6,15 have been associated with increased prevalence of MSDs among this population.…”

Risk Assessment of Musculoskeletal Disorders Related to Patient Transfer Tasks Using the Direct Nurse Observation Instrument Method

“…Healthcare jobs are known to be at high risk for WMSDs (5)(6)(7). It is estimated that about 33% of all cases of sick leaves among healthcare providers are related to MSDs (8).…”