Self-reported musculoskeletal disorders in podiatrists at work

OBJECTOVE: The objective of the study was two-fold: (1) to ascertain the prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders in podiatrists in Spain, and (2) to identify relationships between intensity and duration of pain and socio-demographic variables.

Epidemiological analysis of Spanish self-employed or salaried podiatrists who had at least 1 year's experience, worked at least 20 hours per week, and had five patients per working day. The survey consisted of (1) identification of musculoskeletal disorders using the Standardized Nordic questionnaire for analysis of musculoskeletal symptoms; (2) assessment of perceived pain using the Borg CR-IO scale; and (3) analysis of specific socio-demographic variables. We used basic descriptive statistics to analyse the socio-demographic characteristics and perceived pain. Chi squared, Student's t-test, and ANOVA were used to determine differences between variables.

The sample consisted of 274 women (65.08%) and 147 men (34.92%), for a total of 421 podiatrists. The females were older and reported a higher pain score compared to the males, however neither values showed statistical significance. When combining genders, pain intensity was significantly related to marital status (p = 0.006, IC 95%). The most frequently reported locations for musculoskeletal symptoms during the previous 7 days were the lower back, upper back and neck (33.02%, 21.85% and 21.62% respectively). They were also the most frequently reported locations for the previous 12 months (21.38%, 13.06% and 13.54% respectively). Female podiatrists and younger podiatrists reported more musculoskeletal complaints in the previous 7 days and younger podiatrists during previous 12 months.

There is a significant prevalence of musculoskeletal complaints in daily podiatry work and the most affected body areas are the lower back, upper back and neck. The most affected demographic classes seem to be the younger age groups, females and married podiatrists.