[Musculoskeletal symptoms among supermarket workers.]

The aim was to study the prevalence of musculoskeletal symptoms among supermarket workers in Iceland with special emphasis on the checkers.

The sample was all workers in supermarkets in Reykjavik and Akureyri, which had at least three check-out stations. The sample comprised 653 persons, 448 females and 205 males. The Nordic Questionnaire was mailed to the participants' home addresses. Symptoms of female checkers were compared to symptoms among other workers by Mantel-Haenszel test (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) were calculated.

Compared to other females symptoms among the checkers who worked 20 hours or more a week were high for neck (OR=4.0; 95% CI=1.5-10.7), shoulders (OR=4.5; 95% CI=1.4-14.4), upper back (OR=2.3; 95% CI=1.1-4.7) and wrists (OR=1.2; 95% CI=0.4-3.0) when adjusted for age. Taking years at work into account gives similar results. For hips OR was 0.3 (95% CI=0.1-0.9). Women who had jobs with different work tasks, including checker work, had substantially lower prevalence of symptoms compared to women who only did checker work.

The high prevalence of symptoms from neck, shoulders and upper back among checkers with extended working hours could be related to the repetitive movements which the job demands. It is suggested that those working as checkers should have alternative work tasks and the time at the checkout-stations should be limited.