Risk Factors of Musculoskeletal Disorder at Accident and Emergency Department at Malaysian Hospital

Abstract

Musculoskeletal disorder (MSD) is one of the rising health and safety issues at many industries including healthcare. The awareness on MSD can be seen by the rising numbers of studies conducted across areas of industries from construction to manufacturing. Load and postures are among risk factors that contribute to the MSD. This study is conducted with an objectives to determine whether loads and postures also contributed to the musculoskeletal disorder at accidents and emergency department of Malaysia Hospital. Ethical approval was obtained before conducting the study. Six tertiary hospitals were involved with respondents varied from nurses, medical assistants to medical officers. Questionnaire was used in the study and were distributed via post and collected during site visits at each of the participating hospitals. Data was analysed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) and structural equation modelling (SEM) was used to test the relationships between variables. Findings proved that P value for load is 0.04 and P value for posture is 0.00, indicating positive relationship between load and posture with risk of musculoskeletal at workplace. As a conclusion, load and postures both have a significant effect on the risk of work related musculoskeletal disorder among healthcare workers. Therefore, corrective action must be done in order to reduce the risk of musculoskeletal among the healthcare worker.