Prevalence and risk factor of musculoskeletal symptoms among harvesters in oil palm plantation in Kota Tinggi / Nor Hadibah Tokesno.

Tokesno, Nor Hadibah (2012) Prevalence and risk factor of musculoskeletal symptoms among harvesters in oil palm plantation in Kota Tinggi / Nor Hadibah Tokesno. [Project Paper] (Submitted)

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Abstract

Summary: Introduction: Musculoskeletal disorders (MSD) has been recognized as a significant health effects to the workers in agricultural sectors. Ergonomic risks factor such as awkward postures and individual factors such as age, gender, smoking habits and psychosocial factors are known to play an important role in occurrence of MSDs among workers. Objective: To determine the prevalence of MSD symptoms and its association with risk factors among harvesters in oil palm plantation. Methodology: A cross¬sectional study was done among 129 harvesters in two plantations with inclusive criteria of working permanently for at least 12 months in plantation and age not more than 65 years old and exclusive criteria of previous history of musculoskeletal injuries. Questionnaire was administered in determining worker characteristics. NORDIC questionnaire was used to identify MSD symptoms, Rapid Upper Limb Assessment (RULA) was used to evaluate the postural analysis for ergonomics risk, HIRARC method was used for determining ergonomics factors and emotional disorders detection assessed by using General Health Questionnaire (GHQ). Results: The result shows that the prevalence of low back pain (LBP) was the highest reported by the harvesters (60.5%) compared to the other body part. The overall prevalence of MSD among the harvesters was at 90%. RULA grand score shows that 10 % of them were exposed to medium risks of developing MSD while 90% of them exposed to high risks of developing MSD. Ergonomics risk factors such as awkward postures, prolonged standing, repetitiveness and excessive load were the predictor of back pain and others MSDs symptoms among harvesters. Based on chi- square test it shows a significant associations between Body Mass Index (BMI) (P =0.037) among 3 years old oil palm trees harvesters with total MSDs symptoms and years of employment (P=0.040) among 5 years old oil palm trees harvesters with total MSDs symptoms. Conclusion: This study shows that ergonomic risk factors not contribute to developing MSD while individual factors such as BMI and years of employment contributed to MSDS symptoms.

Item Type:	Project Paper
Faculty:	Faculty of Medicine and Health Science
Depositing User:	Ms Norafizah Radzuan
Date Deposited:	22 Nov 2022 06:27
Last Modified:	15 Feb 2023 01:49
URI:	http://psaspb.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/166

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