Subjective Health Complaints of Teachers From Primary and Secondary Schools in Hong Kong

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate the subjective health complaints (SHC) teachers subjective health complaints occupational diseases

Sintomas osteomusculares e estresse não alteram a qualidade de vida de professores da educação básica

“…In the past 12 months, 48% of the teachers presented musculoskeletal symptoms (Table 2). Our findings corroborate with other research on basic education teachers, which showed high prevalence of musculoskeletal symptoms in teachers, ranging from 40% to 95% [18][19][20][21][22][23] . The parts of the body most affected by musculoskeletal symptoms were the knees, ankles and/or feet, neck, wrists/ hands and back (Table 2).…”

Prevalence of the musculoskeletal disorder among school teachers

“…Furthermore, overweight is assumed to cause pain by increasing the mechanical stress on the weight-bearing joints. [5] Chronic pain is associated with the prevalence of MSDs where a study conducted in Thailand by Pornnapa Suggaravetsirib shown that chronic disease had significantly 1.6 times higher risk for developing MSD compared to without chronic disease. [16] Table 4 shows the association of the length of employment with musculoskeletal pain could be interpreted as the effect of aging or a cumulative effect of workloads on the musculoskeletal system of the workers.…”

“…These may cause teachers to suffer from adverse mental and physical health issues due to a variety of job functions. [5] Nursery school teacher, however, also performs a wide variety of tasks combining basic health, childcare, and teaching duties and those that require sustained mechanical load and constant trunk flexion. [7] Sometimes, teaching is carried out under unfavorable circumstances; in which teacher mobilize their physical, cognitive, and emotional capacity to reach the teaching productive objectives, overdemanding, or generating over the effort of their psychophysiological functions.…”

“…Thus, teachers suffer from mental and physical health hazard due to the occupation. [5] Social changes leading to educational reforms and needed new teaching models have influenced current teaching methodology, leading to changes in the teaching world. Therefore, the teachers have to push themselves beyond their comfort zone at work to match to new, precarious, and unregulated working modes.…”

“…School teachers represent an occupational group among which there appears to be a high prevalence of MSDs with the prevalence rates of between National Journal of Physiology, Pharmacy and Pharmacology 198 2018 | Vol 8 | Issue 2 40% and 95%. [5,6] MSD decreases the productivity at work due to sick leave, absenteeism, and early retirement. [1] The work task of school teachers often involves significant use of head-down postures, such as frequent reading and marking of assignments.…”