job stress and its relationship with the musculoskeletal disorders among office workers of zahedan university of medical sciences, iran

Background and purpose: job stress is an important psychological factor. musculoskeletaldisorders are among the most common causes of disability in industrialized and developingcountries. therefore, this study aimed to assess job stress and its relationship with the prevalenceof musculoskeletal disorders in office workers of zahedan university of medical sciences, iran.materials and methods: a total of 234 office workers from zahedan university of medicalsciences were selected by census sampling. data were collected using the health and safetyexecutive’s management standards indicator tool and the cornell musculoskeletal discomfortquestionnaire. pearson’s correlation coefficients, independent t-test, analysis of variance, andchi-square tests were performed to analyze the data.results: the mean age and work experience of the participants were 35.25 ± 8.37 and 9.20 ± 2.64years, respectively. the mean stress scores of men and women were 95.6 ± 13.1 and 95.2 ± 14.8,respectively. stress showed a significant relationship with pain intensity in the middle and lowerback, shoulders, and wrists. it was also significantly related with the frequency of pain in the neck,upper back, middle back, lower back, (left) shoulder, and both wrists (p ≤ 0.050).conclusion: there were significant relationships between stress and pain in different parts ofthe body among office workers. in fact, high levels of stress were associated withmusculoskeletal disorders and pain in different limbs of the subjects. hence, stress reductionprograms should be implemented to control the levels of stress and the incidence ofmusculoskeletal disorders among the studied workers.