Association between pain intensity, neck disability index, and working conditions among women employed in horticulture.

Introduction and objective: One of the most frequent musculoskeletal disorders is neck pain (NP). NP can be associated with occupational activities and is more common among females than males. Horticulture is a branch of agriculture in which work is intensively manual, and characterized by repetitive tasks. The aim of the cross-sectional study was to analyze the association between pain intensity, neck disability index (NDI), and working conditions in terms of selected factors related to work in horticulture.

Material and methods: 44 women employed in horticulture met eligibility criteria (experienced necked pain). Five factors related to working conditions were investigated: work experience, upper extremity position, head position, prophylaxis, and stress frequency. NDI and visual analog scale (VAS) were used to investigate pain intensity and disability.

Results: It was found that the position of the upper limb at work and the frequency of stress were significantly associated with the VAS score (p=0.046 and p=0.02, respectively). With regard to NDI total score, a statistically significant association was found between work experience and stress frequency (p=0.02 and p=0.01, respectively). Analysis of the relationship between VAS and NDI total score showed a statistically significant weak positive correlation (R=0.39; p=0.01).

Conclusions: NP and NDI are related to the activities that women working in horticulture have to perform. Stress seems to be an important factor in cervical problems among female workers leading to an increase in NP and disability.