Ergonomics Study of the Incidence of Musculoskeletal Disorder among the School Teachers in Egba Division of Ogun State Nigeria

Abstract

Musculoskeletal pains (MP) especially the lower back, leg, neck and
shoulder pain were the common complain among the classroom
teachers due to prolong desk working and standing in the classroom.
The study was conducted among the primary and secondary school
classroom teachers in randomly selected two hundred and seven (207)
schools in Egba division of Ogun State, Nigeria. Four thousand five
hundred (4,500) modified Nodic Musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs)
questionnaires were administered to the classroom teachers to assess
their body parts with MSDs and their perceptions on health risk at work
but four thousand and sixty (90.2%) participated. The analysis of the
study revealed that the total prevalence of MSDs is 70.47%. The result
showed that 65.2%, 18.9%, 11.7%, 3.2% and 1.1% of the teachers
complained of leg pain (LP), lower back pain (LBP), shoulder pain
(SP), Neck pain (NP) and upper back pain (UBP) respectively. The
result further revealed that 49.7% of the teachers activated rest or sleep
as a way of treatment of their nursing pains. Only 33.6% visit the
hospital or clinic while 14.8% and 2.2% indulged in self-medication or
otherwise. The results further showed that the classroom teachers are
affected by work-related MSDs and that they represent an occupational
group with high prevalence of MP. The result concluded that strategies
are needed to be developed to reduce the MP in teachers.