Examination of Occupational Stress and its Connection with Muscular- Skeletal Disorders Among the Employees of Construction Industry in the City of Tehran

Introduction: People's jobs are one of the main causes of stress in their lives. Job is a source of social identity for each person, a source of living needs and a component of social relationships. Job-related stress is one of the stresses that, if excessive, can endanger a person's health by causing physical, psychological and behavioral complications. Also, the existence of these pressures by threatening organizational goals, can reduce the quality of individual performance. According to NIOSH, occupational stress occurs when there is a mismatch between job needs and abilities, capabilities and desires. In this definition, in addition to the lack of coordination with the abilities and capabilities of the individual, individual desires have also been considered. Musculoskeletal Disorders (MSDs) are the most commonly reported occupational health problems, which in addition to affecting the quality of life of individuals, incur high direct costs for their diagnosis and treatment, and indirect costs. Absence from work and loss of specialized personnel at work. However, workplace factors such as physical activity and repetitive work and non-ergonomic postures cause musculoskeletal disorders; However, in recent years, the role of workplace psychological factors in increasing musculoskeletal disorders has been recognized and has been the subject of extensive studies. One of the most important factors that affect musculoskeletal disorders is occupational stress with physical, psychological, behavioral and organizational consequences that reduce job satisfaction and organizational commitment. In a US study, Young et al. Examined the prevalence of back pain and its association with psychosocial risk factors. They concluded that older women and workers were at increased risk for back pain and that there was a strong association between this problem and some type of psychosocial factor.
The construction industry is one of the industries in which the occurrence of musculoskeletal disorders due to repetitive movements is common. In this industry, workers are directly involved in the construction process. Due to the high population of construction workers in the country and the increasing development of the construction industry and few studies on the presence of stress in employees of the industry, it was felt necessary to conduct research in this area on the role of stress and its impact on skeletal disorders. Understanding muscle and take a small step to identify and help solve some of the problems of this vulnerable group. According to the above and the need to maintain the health of people in the workplace, the present study was conducted to determine the relationship between occupational stress and musculoskeletal disorders in one of the construction workshops. In this study, in addition to investigating the relationship between stress and musculoskeletal disorders, the relationship between some demographic characteristics and the prevalence of this type of disorders was also investigated.
Materials and Methods: This research is a descriptive-analytical study and one of the applied studies that was studied cross-sectionally. The statistical population of the study consisted of employees of a construction workshop based in Tehran, 78 people were selected using simple random sampling method based on Cochran's formula.
In this study, people with congenital defects or a history of spinal surgery and musculoskeletal injury caused by the accident were excluded from the study. The researcher went to the study site and presented the pre-arranged questionnaires to the staff without including their names and necessary explanations. In this study, 3 questionnaires were used to evaluate the information needed for the study:
1. Assessing the demographic characteristics of individuals using the Demographic Characteristics Questionnaire: This questionnaire contained questions such as age, marital status, type of employment, shift work, years of work, smoking and alcohol consumption that were completed by the subjects.
2. Prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders using Nordic questionnaire: Nordic musculoskeletal disorders questionnaire includes information about neck, shoulder, elbow, wrist, back, thigh, knee and leg pain. This questionnaire was designed by Corina et al. In 1987 and is known today as the Nordic Questionnaire. This questionnaire is one of the most comprehensive tools for diagnosing musculoskeletal disorders. The validity and reliability of the Nordic questionnaire in 2006 were examined by Azgoli et al. And confirmed by a correlation coefficient of 0.91.
3. Stress Assessment Using Occupational Stress Inventory Questionnaire: This questionnaire is graded based on a 5-point Likert scale from one to five: Never (1) points, sometimes (2), often (3 ), Usually (4) and most of the time (5) points are considered. The score range of this questionnaire fluctuates between 60 and 300. The higher scores in this questionnaire indicate the high level of stress. The overall stress levels in the five categories are lower than normal (60 to 109 points), normal (110 to 159 points), mild (160 to 209 points), moderate (210 to 259 points) and severe (260 to 300 points). . Also, during the research of Sharifian et al. (2004), the content validity of ASIPO questionnaire has been expressed very well and its Cronbach's alpha coefficient has been calculated and reported as 0.89 and its reliability has been calculated in a satisfactory level by retesting.
Data analysis was performed using SPSS software version 21. In order to describe the samples of descriptive statistics including frequency distribution, frequency percentage, mean and standard deviation and to analyze the data at the level of inferential statistics, to determine the relationship between variables from Chi-square test and also to determine the relationship between occupational stress and skeletal disorders. - Muscular parametric t-test was used. First, all staff were assured that the information collected would be completely confidential, and then questionnaires were distributed.
Discussion of Results: The mean age of the subjects in the study was 36.69 with a standard deviation of 8.31. The youngest person in the study was 22 years old and the oldest person in the study was 55 years old.
In the study of occupational stress, most employees (51.2%) had normal stress levels, although 32 employees also had mild stress and a small number of employees had moderate stress and none of the employees had severe stress.
In determining the prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders, 38.4% of employees in the last 12 months have had pain and discomfort in at least one area of the body. Among the employees in whom musculoskeletal disorders were reported, the highest rate of disorders was related to disability in the lower back (46.6%) and the lowest rate was related to thigh disorder (13.3%).
In the study of the relationship between occupational stress and different levels of musculoskeletal disorders using T test, it was observed that there is a statistically significant relationship between the mean of occupational stress with lower musculoskeletal disorders of the lower back, knees and ankles (P <0.05). So that with the increase of occupational stress, the rate of musculoskeletal disorders in the mentioned sections also increases. And has no significant relationship with neck, back, thigh and leg discomfort (P> 0.05).
Conclusions: In this study, the status of occupational stress and its effect on musculoskeletal disorders of employees of a construction industry in Tehran was investigated and showed that occupational stress has a significant relationship with the levels of musculoskeletal disorders. In addition to the relationship between occupational stress and musculoskeletal disorders, this study shows the relationship between these disorders with demographic variables as well as the level of job stress in employees.
According to the results obtained in this study, the highest prevalence of musculoskeletal injuries was in the lumbar region (46.6%) and the lowest was related to thigh disorders (13.3%).
Given that the study was conducted on a construction project, it is possible that the harsh nature of the work environment, repetitive movements, high work pressure, as well as a lack of job security, may play a role in stress.Overall, The results showed that occupational stress is a risk factor for some musculoskeletal disorders in employees. Effective measures are needed to reduce stress levels among employees.