-
Recent research indicates that an estimated 20% of lower back and neck pain in adults is attributable to occupation exposure worldwide (1). These work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSDs) result from many adverse ergonomic factors in the workplace, such as heavy physical load operation, repetitive work, awkward working posture, occupational stress, bad working organization, and other problems. Workers exposed to these adverse ergonomics factors for a long time are easy to cause part muscle fatigue. Such long-term chronic accumulation may eventually lead to WMSDs.
In recent decades, WMSDs have become increasingly prominent and affect all parts of an individual’s life. In 2002, the International Labour Organization (ILO) explicitly added musculoskeletal diseases to the list of international occupational diseases (Recommendation 194). Musculoskeletal diseases are further detailed in the latest occupational disease list that was approved and went into effect by the ILO in 2010 (2). Since the 1990s, China has been paying attention to WMSDs and has carried out related research on its epidemiological characteristics, risk factors, and occurrence mechanism. So far, much of the existing research has focused on local areas or enterprises, and these results can only reflect the occurrence of WMSDs in a certain working populations and lack the occurrence and rules of WMSDs in key industries nationwide. Therefore, this study conducted a large-scale epidemiological survey on key industries in different regions to investigate the prevalence and distribution characteristics of WMSDs in key industries in China and to explore the epidemiological characteristics. An epidemiological cross-sectional survey was conducted to investigate the occurrence of WMSDs among the above-mentioned subjects using the electronic questionnaire system of “Chinese Version of Musculoskeletal Disorders Questionnaire,” which has been the standard for such surveys so far (3).
The case definition most commonly employed by the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) required satisfaction of all of the following criteria (4):
Discomfort within the past year.
Discomfort began after employment in the current job.
No prior accident or sudden injury (affecting focal area of discomfort).
Episodes of discomfort occur monthly or, if not every month, at least exceeding a weeklong period of discomfort.
After the survey data were exported from the background, SPSS 20.0 statistical software (version 20.0, SPSS Inc, Chicago, IL, USA) was used to statistically process the data. Patients with congenital spinal deformity and musculoskeletal diseases caused by non-work related factors such as trauma, infectious diseases, malignant tumors, etc. were excluded.
So far, 41,310 valid questionnaires have been received covering seven regions of China’s northern region, eastern region, central region, southern region, southwestern region, northwestern region, and northeastern region, and involved 14 industries or working groups including automobile manufacturing, footwear manufacturing, bio-pharmaceutical manufacturing, electronic equipment manufacturing, shipbuilding and related equipment manufacturing, petrochemical industry, construction industry, coal mining and washing and dressing industry, animal husbandry, medical staff, 4S automobile store①, vegetable greenhouses, flight attendants, toy manufacturing, etc. The prevalence rate of WMSDs (a WMSD in any body part is listed as a case) among the total working population was 42.9%, and the prevalence of WMSDs in each body part fluctuates between 7.5% and 27.0% with the highest three body parts being the neck (27.0%), shoulders (22.4%), and lower back (17.6%) (Table 1). The prevalence of WMSDs in different regions of China was significantly different (p<0.05), and the prevalence of WMSDs in each region ranked from highest to lowest was the central region (51.4%), northwestern region (51.2%), northeastern region (49.8%), northern region (48.6%), southwestern region (42.9%), southern region (42.3%), and eastern region (37.9%) (Figure 1). There were statistical differences in the prevalence of WMSDs among occupational groups in different industries (p<0.05), and the three industries with the highest prevalence of WMSDs were biopharmaceutical manufacturing (66.4%), vegetable greenhouse (60.5%), and medical staff (55.6%).
Industry Number (n) Any body part Neck Shoulders Upper back Lower back Elbows Wrists/Hands Hips/Thighs Knees Ankles/Feet n % n % n % n % n % n % n % n % n % n % Shipbuilding and related equipment manufacturing 3,515 1,439 40.9 788 22.4 673 19.1 494 14.1 664 18.9 326 9.3 455 12.9 419 11.9 489 13.9 414 11.8 Electronic equipment manufacturing 8,284 3,236 39.1 2,116 25.5 1,808 21.8 1,184 14.3 1,151 13.9 527 6.4 907 10.9 721 8.7 588 7.1 816 9.9 Construction industry 1,245 258 20.7 106 8.5 104 8.4 79 6.3 111 8.9 49 3.9 63 5.1 60 4.8 48 3.9 52 4.2 Coal mining and washing industry 722 328 45.4 197 27.3 179 24.8 134 18.6 150 20.8 68 9.4 83 11.5 109 15.1 137 19.0 104 14.4 Flight attendants 1,362 697 51.2 505 37.1 387 28.4 204 15.0 276 20.3 52 3.8 98 7.2 122 9.0 143 10.5 157 11.5 4S automobile store* 544 177 32.5 88 16.2 78 14.3 70 12.9 92 16.9 27 5.0 50 9.2 47 8.6 50 9.2 61 11.2 Automobile manufacturing 10,942 4,773 43.6 2,700 24.7 2,261 20.7 1,760 16.1 1,942 17.7 971 8.9 1,862 17.0 1,292 11.8 1,404 12.8 2,003 18.3 Biopharmaceutical manufacturing 286 190 66.4 131 45.8 95 33.2 82 28.7 74 25.9 18 6.3 51 17.8 51 17.8 42 14.7 81 28.3 Petrochemical industry 286 80 28.0 49 17.1 37 12.9 26 9.1 38 13.3 15 5.2 20 7.0 21 7.3 23 8.0 11 3.8 Vegetable greenhouse 243 147 60.5 51 21.0 43 17.7 16 6.6 79 32.5 5 2.1 16 6.6 30 12.3 57 23.5 13 5.3 Toy manufacturing 314 163 51.9 117 37.3 112 35.7 83 26.4 88 28.0 69 22.0 95 30.3 53 16.9 61 19.4 62 19.7 Animal husbandry 246 96 39.0 62 25.2 41 16.7 20 8.1 64 26.0 19 7.7 47 19.1 23 9.3 35 14.2 15 6.1 Medical staff 6,323 3,517 55.6 2,535 40.1 2,049 32.4 1,386 21.9 1,602 25.3 440 7.0 723 11.4 1,051 16.6 878 13.9 1,018 16.1 Footwear industry 6,998 2,608 37.3 1,696 24.2 1,395 19.9 872 12.5 954 13.6 508 7.3 1,075 15.4 600 8.6 552 7.9 599 8.6 Total 41,310 17,709 42.9 11,141 27.0 9,262 22.4 6,410 15.5 7,285 17.6 3,094 7.5 5,545 13.4 4,599 11.1 4,507 10.9 5,406 13.1 Chi-square test 1013.288 1059.531 696.041 454.052 585.164 230.955 449.286 395.853 507.486 728.203 p value 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 * Sales, service, spare parts, and surveys (customer feedback). Table 1. Incidence of WMSDs in key industries or occupational groups in China, 2018–2019.
Figure 1.Regional distribution of work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSDs) among key industries or occupational groups in China, 2018–2019.
The difference of prevalence of WMSDs between age groups and working age groups was statistically significant (p<0.05) as the prevalence rate of WMSDs gradually increased and then decreased as age increased. The prevalence of WMSDs increased first, then decreased and then increased with the length of service (Figure 2).The prevalence of female WMSDs (48.5%) was significantly higher than that of male (38.4%) (p<0.05)
HTML
FootNote
① | 4S means sales, service, spare parts, and surveys. |
Citation: |