The Relationship between Job Stress and Musculoskeletal Disorders among Midwives

Abstract

Job stresses can increase the prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) in midwifery job, and reduce the efficiency and quality of their services. Therefore, this study was conducted to determine the prevalence of MSDs among midwives and to examine the relationship between job stress and the prevalence of MSDs in different regions their body. This was descriptiveanalytical and cross-sectional study. The study population included all midwives working in public and private hospitals of Kerman in 2019. According to the research community, 74 midwives were selected as a sample of research, by Census method. For data collection, Standard Nordic Musculoskeletal Questionnaire (NMQ) and Altmeyer job stress questionnaire were used. The data were analyzed with descriptive and analytical statistics (Pearson correlation, t-test and Chi square test) methods by SPSS 16 software. In this study 78.4 % of subjects had experienced discomfort or pain in the past 12 months at least in one body part. The most frequent symptoms of MSDs were observed in the three parts of body, feet with a frequency of 39.2% (29 persons), and knees and back each one 35.1% (26 persons). Also in this study, the relationship between musculoskeletal disorders and job stress was dignificant (P<0.05). According to the result of this research, it can be concluded that job stresses can presumably intensify physical side effects including musculoskeletal disorders. Also, the prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders in midwives under studied was high. Therefore, holding training courses about standard body postures while doing job tasks and avoiding inappropriate body posture will be important.