Prevalence of Musculoskeletal Symptoms in Taiwan’s Traditional Industries

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to analyze the prevalence of self‐reported musculoskeletal symptoms among the three Taiwan’s traditional industries as lathe, electronics and food by the Nordic Musculoskeletal Questionnaire (NMQ). Moreover, the study was also to make a comparision among the aforesaid industries for revealing their differences. The result of the questionnaire indicated that the symptoms appeared on the three industries were all originated from four parts as neck, shoulders, elbows, and wrists/hands. More than 68 per cent of the interviewers’s thought that their symptoms might be related to their work. However, the rate of harmful influence resulted from life or job was over 50 per cent. As to the respect of the interviewers’ attitude in treating their symptoms, more than 80 per cent of them neglected or just treated the symptoms by massaging or cold/hot compressing and resting. From the questionnaire, the proportion of symptoms discussed in each item inicated that the distribution, in perceiving symptom, of interviewers were not quite identical; however the Chi‐square test discovered majority did not reach 0.05 levels, hence the difference among industries were not significant.

Citation

Yu, C., Hsu, Y., Chung, Y. and Tsai, C. (2004), "Prevalence of Musculoskeletal Symptoms in Taiwan’s Traditional Industries", Asian Journal on Quality, Vol. 5 No. 2, pp. 79-88. https://doi.org/10.1108/15982688200400015