Prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders among the garment worker in Dhaka City

Abstract

ABSTRACT Ready made Garment sector is the major sector contributing to the national economy. There are 4296 garment industries are running where 4.00 million workers are employed. In the financial year 2014-2015, RMG export 25491.40 million dollar which is the 81.71% of total export. It is very important to know the prevalence and associated risk factors for occurring musculoskeletal disorders among the RMG workers. A descriptive type of cross sectional study was carried out to find the prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders among the readymade garment workers in Dhaka city. The study was conducted from June 2015 to May 2016. Random sampling was used to collect data. Respondents (N=260) were interviewed with a custom made questionnaire. The gathered data were analyzed by SPSS software version 20 using descriptive statistics, chi-square test. In this study the mean age of the respondent was 21.89; (SD ± 3.899). Educational levels of 44.2% respondents belong to secondary or bellow secondary level. Number of family member mean 4.30; (SD=±4.30). Monthly income average was Taka 6750.38 and most of (52.3%) were in Taka 6001-7000. Working hours average was 9.63; (SD=±1.725). The musculoskeletal disorder pain prevalence was 41.9% and among them more than two third (63.8%) of garments workers had been suffering from 1-2 years. There is more neck pain in respondents, 29.3%. 18.3% in shoulder, 10.1% in elbow 7.3%, 11%, 14.6% in hips, knee, ankles/feet and the rest of 14.6% is low back pain. Musculoskeletal disorder (e.g. pain) developed in 46.2% of respondents who spent 7- 8 hours of total working hours daily in sitting and 47.3% worked in standing posture. Most of 43.5% respondent experienced occasional mental stress due to excessive work load and 26.2% experienced all the time stress. 23.8% respondents were vii involved in heavy physical duty (lifting). Type of co-morbidities 13.8% had suffered diabetes, 23.1% had hypertensive and 22.3% had arthritis and more than fifty (52.2%) had common co-morbidities. There was relationship between increased daily times hours spend in sitting, standing, lifting by participants and development of musculoskeletal disorders were increased and the risk of developing musculoskeletal disorder pain was 1.64, 1.62 & 1.31. Average loss of working days due to musculoskeletal disorder per year for per person was 6.67 days. The findings are statistically highly significant (p=0.001).