Pervasiveness of work-related Musculoskeletal Disorders on Indian construction workers

Abstract

Indian construction involves a large number of organized and unorganized workers. There is always a risk of accidents, injuries and disability due to working in an awful, inconvenient workplace and unfavourable conditions. Construction workers work in static, dynamic and awkward postures throughout the day. The work duration, frequency of working and working technique has led to the development of Work-related musculoskeletal disorders in construction workers in India. The study was conducted to corroborate the feeling of pain in different body parts by construction workers and its association with an individual risk factor, physical risk factors and psychosocial risk factors.  Information was collected from four-hundred and sixty-five workers doing various construction works. The statistical analysis (Pearson correlation and Binary Logistic Regression Analysis) was performed to confirm the feeling of pain with individual, physical and psychosocial risk factors. The result shows that there is a significant relationship between pain and working in an awkward posture, age, and years of experience. Workers are exposed to the lower back (72.90%), shoulders (49.68%), arms/hands (47.31%), wrists (30.75%), legs (26.67%), neck (24.09%), fingers/thumbs (23.23%) and knees (16.13%). The result also shows that construction workers work in stressful, painful, tedious conditions and awkward postures.    For the development of musculoskeletal disorders, working in an awkward posture, year of experience, doing pervasive jobs, traumatic incidents and age are more responsible for which detailed investigation is required.