Prevalence of Medial Elbow Pain in Taxi Drivers of Lahore; A Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

Background: Pain in the medial side of elbow in taxi drivers is a work-related problem that normally comprises repetitive movement and occurs commonly in wrist flexion with pronation of the forearm. Objective: To determine the prevalence of medial elbow pain in taxi drivers in Lahore. Methods: This cross-sectional study comprised of 268 taxi drivers from Lahore. Questionnaires were given to taxi drivers who were recruited through convenient sampling. Consent forms, both in Urdu and English were explained before data collection. Professional participants who had taxi driving as an occupation and who were working for two years were involved in this study. To fulfill the criteria of a sample size that was 268 the record of taxi drivers was also gathered from the e-record of Uber and Careem, Lahore. Taxi drivers of age 20 to 55 years, both gender and those who had working hours of 5 to 8 or more hours were included in this study. Drivers who had any recent traumatic injury or had been in a recent road traffic accident, undergone surgery were excluded from this study. The visual analogue scale was used as an outcome measuring tool to assess the medial elbow pain in taxi drivers. The taxi drivers were asked to fill out questionnaires, which consisted of questions focusing on pain, daily activities, difficulties in function and personal care. Data was analyzed by SPSS version 23, qualitative data was presented as frequency and percentages. Results: The prevalence of medial pain elbow pain came out to be 38.8% (103 participants), 30 (11.2%) were having mild pain, 64 (23.9%) moderate, 9 (3.4%) severe while 165 (61.5%) were free from medial elbow pain. Conclusion: This study showed that the prevalence of medial elbow pain in professional taxi drivers was 38.4% and affected the activities of daily living of drivers. Most drivers reported the pain within mild to moderate range. Pain in the medial aspect of the elbow can arise in taxi drivers due to the nature of their work and factors such as long working hours, prolonged sitting, whole body vibration and poor ergonomic design of taxi.