Work Related Musculoskeletal Pain among Physiotherapy Students

Abstract

Physiotherapists serve as role models for practicing healthy lifestyle behaviors. They are desired to have a good level of physical fitness to meet their job demands. Their professional demands require the therapist to engage in activities that demand a wholesome amount of strength, endurance and flexibility. The job analysis shows that physiotherapy students are more likely to experience musculoskeletal pain. Occupational musculoskeletal pain relates to workplace hazards and incurs high costs to society as well as individual’s pain and suffering. All physiotherapy students enrolled in a tertiary care public sector hospital were asked to participate in a cross-sectional questionnaire-based study. A sample size of 48 was randomly selected at a power of 80% and p<0.05 using STATA 10 software. The sample targeted all students registered from first to fourth year and also post-graduate students. Descriptive statistics were included for quantitative variables. The prevalence of musculoskeletal pain between different year groups was compared using Pearson’s chi-square test. Prevalence of low back pain was found among 48 % of students, followed by 16 % reporting neck and upper back pain, 12 % having both neck and low back pain, 8 % showed knee pain while 4 % stated foot pain. We observed that 52 % of students had musculoskeletal pain in one form or other. But, only 36 % out of these were taking any precautionary measures or treatments to cure the same.

Keywords: physiotherapy students, musculoskeletal pain, occupational injury, ergonomics, postures, low back pain

Cite this Article
Chhaya Verma, Lavanya Kailas, Vijaya Krishnan. Work-related musculoskeletal pain among physiotherapy students. Journal of Health Professions, 2015; 5(3): 25–31p.