Influence Of Individual Factors Like Gender, Physical Activity And Age On The Occurrence Of Musculoskeletal Disorders In Video Display Terminal Users

The ever increasing use of computers in various fields has led to rise in musculoskeletal problems related to its operation. The pre-tested Musculoskeletal Disorder (MSD) survey instrument that includes the constructs Equipment Design, Equipment Setup, Equipment Layout, Provision of Training, Work Environment, Psychosocial Work Aspect, Psychosocial Personal Aspect, Rest Break Frequency and Assumed Posture has been to solicit the respondents like Design Engineers, Systems Engineers, Managers, Data Entry Personnels working in Production, Service and Software industries in order to get their perceptions. The study was conducted in the state of Tamilnadu in South India. A total of about 600 questionnaires were distributed to the Video Display Terminals (VDT) users and 410 questionnaires were valid one. SPSS version 15.0 was used for all statistical computations. The associations of musculoskeletal disorders with gender were assessed to check whether the perception level of male VDT workers and female VDT workers on the MSD causing risk variables, MSD prevalence level and Job Prevention are different. From the results, it is understood that even though the male and female VDT workers perceive the same level of MSD prevalence, the female VDT users perceive the higher level of Assumed posture than the male VDT users, meaning that the women while using computers alter their body posture in a better way when compared to men. A hypothesis is framed and tested to check whether there is significant difference in the perception level of VDT users doing physical exercise and VDT users not doing physical exercise on the MSD causing risk factors, MSD prevalence and Job Prevention. It is inferred that the VDT users not doing physical activity perceive higher level of MSD prevalence when compared with VDT users doing physical activity. The association between computer workplace and the musculoskeletal disorder is also studied and the results show that the level of MSD prevalence level and Job Prevention differs significantly for various age groups since the value of significance is less than 0.05. The age group (35 – 40 years) perceives the higher level of MSD prevalence when compared to remaining age groups. Thus, our study suggests that MSDs are a common problem among those who use computer intensively. Results of this study can contribute to the development of appropriate hazard-prevention programs for workers who frequently use computers.