Prevalence of Musculoskeletal Symptoms and Assessment of Working Conditions in an Iranian Petrochemical Industry

Background/objective: musculoskeletal disorders (msds) areone of the most common causes of occupational injuries. thisstudy was conducted with the objectives of determination ofprevalence rate of msds and ergonomics assessment of the riskof msds among workers of a petrochemical company.methods: in this study, 261randomly selected workers in apetrochemical company with at least one year of job tenureparticipated. office and operational personnel were studiedseparately. in office jobs, data were collected using nordicmusculoskeletal disorders questionnaire (nmq) and ergonomicschecklist for assessment of work conditions. in operational jobs,nmq and qec (quick exposure check) methods were appliedto gather the required data. data analysis was performed usingspss software.results: the most prevalent msds symptoms were reportedin the lower back (36.2%), upper back (31%), neck (31%) andknees (30.3%). the results showed that the prevalence of msdsindifferent body regions of the office staff was higher than thoseof operational workers. also, in 40.9% of the observed cases,total ergonomics index was in action category 1 (inappropriateworking conditions) and 59.9% of the subjects taken in actioncategory 2 (appropriate working conditions). the results ofassessment by qec technique among operational workersshowed that in 82.8% of the workers studied, the level of exposureto musculoskeletal risks was high or very high.conclusions: the prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders in theoffice staff was higher than that of operational subjects. to improvethe working conditions, taking risk factors of the lower back, upperback, neck and knees into consideration seems to be essential.