Psychosocial work factors and shoulder pain in hotel room cleaners

Hotel room cleaners have physically demanding jobs that place them at high risk for shoulder pain. Psychosocial work factors may also play a role in shoulder pain, but their independent role has not been studied in this group.

Seventy-four percent (941 of 1,276) of hotel room cleaners from five Las Vegas hotels completed a 29-page survey assessing health status, working conditions, and psychosocial work factors. For this study, 493 of the 941 (52%) with complete data for 21 variables were included in multivariate logistic regression analyses.

Fifty-six percent reported shoulder pain in the prior four weeks. Room cleaners with effort-reward imbalance (ERI) were three times as likely to report shoulder pain (OR 2.99, 95% CI 1.95-4.59, P = 0.000) even after adjustment for physical workload and other factors. After adjustment for physical workload, job strain and iso-strain were not significantly associated with shoulder pain.

ERI is independently associated with shoulder pain in hotel room cleaners even after adjustment for physical workload and other risk factors.