An investigation of musculoskeletal disorders in healthcare professionals.
type: CreativeWork
description: The aims of the work within this thesis were to i) establish the prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders among hospital based nurses and physiotherapists and to establish both perceived and possible causes for these disorders, ii) obtain clinical diagnoses and prognoses of nurses and physiotherapy staff attending an Occupational Health Department, iii) to establish which occupational tasks have the greatest potential to cause musculoskeletal disorders and iv) to investigate the effects of simulated nursing tasks and a modified porters' work-rest schedule on spinal shrinkage. In the epidemiological study the annual prevalence of all musculoskeletal disorders was estimated for nurses and physiotherapists in combination as 49%. The point prevalence was 20.7%. The anatomical area most affected was the lower back, buttocks, upper leg area. In total, musculoskeletal disorders accounted for 19% of all absences from work from all respondents within the previous year. Of those staff attending the Occupational Health Department, the main anatomical area affected by musculoskeletal disorders was, again, the back. Whilst a clinical diagnosis could be given to some patients, others were categorised as having 'low-back pain' indicating the often idiopathic nature of the symptoms. Time off work was often extensive and some staff members were retired from their profession as a direct result of their disorder. Patient handling was cited as the major perceived cause of the musculoskeletal disorders experienced. This variable was not significantly associated with the presence of musculoskeletal disorders in a logistic regression analysis. It is likely that all aspects of nursing and physiotherapy require some degree of manual handling and the category as a whole is too broad to enable an association with the presence or absence of a musculoskeletal disorder to be identified. Factors found to be associated with the presence of a musculoskeletal disorder or back pain were the specialty …
abstract: The aims of the work within this thesis were to i) establish the prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders among hospital based nurses and physiotherapists and to establish both perceived and possible causes for these disorders, ii) obtain clinical diagnoses and prognoses of nurses and physiotherapy staff attending an Occupational Health Department, iii) to establish which occupational tasks have the greatest potential to cause musculoskeletal disorders and iv) to investigate the effects of simulated nursing tasks and a modified porters' work-rest schedule on spinal shrinkage. In the epidemiological study the annual prevalence of all musculoskeletal disorders was estimated for nurses and physiotherapists in combination as 49%. The point prevalence was 20.7%. The anatomical area most affected was the lower back, buttocks, upper leg area. In total, musculoskeletal disorders accounted for 19% of all absences from work from all respondents within the previous year. Of those staff attending the Occupational Health Department, the main anatomical area affected by musculoskeletal disorders was, again, the back. Whilst a clinical diagnosis could be given to some patients, others were categorised as having 'low-back pain' indicating the often idiopathic nature of the symptoms. Time off work was often extensive and some staff members were retired from their profession as a direct result of their disorder. Patient handling was cited as the major perceived cause of the musculoskeletal disorders experienced. This variable was not significantly associated with the presence of musculoskeletal disorders in a logistic regression analysis. It is likely that all aspects of nursing and physiotherapy require some degree of manual handling and the category as a whole is too broad to enable an association with the presence or absence of a musculoskeletal disorder to be identified. Factors found to be associated with the presence of a musculoskeletal disorder or back pain were the specialty …
author: Beynon, C
keywords: QP Physiology, R Medicine (General)
date published: 1999-01
date modified: 2026-07-24T06:30:06Z
provider: Liverpool Jon Moores University
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: Liverpool John Moores University

PropertyValue
property ID: DOI
value: 10.24377/LJMU.t.00005055