Occupational Risk Factors for Musculoskeletal Disorders among Operation Room Nurses at Cairo University Hospitals

Aims: To assess the occupational risk factors that contribute to the occurrence of work- related musculoskeletal disorders among Operation Room (OR) nurses and MSDs relation to biomarker c-telopeptide of type II collagen (CTX-II).

Study Design: A cross sectional study.

Place and Duration of Study: Cairo University hospitals from January to April 2014.

Methodology: The study was conducted upon 184 OR nurses from different specialties. They include 155 females and 29 males with age ranged 20-50 years and work duration ranged 2-35 years. They represent 52.6% of the OR nurses work power all over Cairo University hospitals. The individuals were subjected to questionnaires including Standardized Nordic Questionnaire (SNQ), Job Content Questionnaire (JCQ) and Quick Exposure Check (QEC) for ergonomic risk assessment. Urinary CTX-II was measured.

Results: Out of 184 OR nurses, 180 have musculoskeletal symptoms with a prevalence of 97.8%. CTX-II in females was non-statistically significant higher than in males. Higher non-statistically significant levels of CTX-II were found in those aged ≥ 40 years than in those < 40. Non- statistically significant differences were in correlation between CTX-II and various occupational risk factors as BMI, age, duration of employment, physical risk factors except for outreached arm (r= 0.16, p=0.03) and psychosocial factors except for deficient rest break (r=-0.15, p=0.038) which showed statistically significant differences. No statistically significant correlation was found between CTX-II and any of musculoskeletal symptoms during the past twelve months by applying SNQ. A statistically significant difference (Z=2.26, p=0.02) was found in OR nurses group with knee crepitus in comparison with nurses group without knee crepitus among those with high level of urinary CTX-II. Other MSDs showed no statistically significant differences between symptomatizing and non-symptomatizing groups.

Conclusion: Operating room nurses are exposed to multiple occupational risk factors leading to MSDs. CTX-II may be a valuable biomarker in early osteoarthritis.