Prevalence and factors associated with neck, shoulder and low back pains among medical students in a Malaysian Medical College

BMC Research Notes

Sami Abdo Radman Al-Dubai³  Saeed S Al-Ghamdi⁵  Ibrahim Abdel Aziz Ibrahim⁵  Looi Pui Yan²  Amal R Nimer¹  Mustafa Ahmed Alshagga⁴ 

[1] Division of Biomedical Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, CUCMS, Cyberjaya, Selangor, 63000, Malaysia;Faculty of Pharmacy, CUCMS, Cyberjaya 63000, Selangor, Malaysia;Department of Community Medicine, International Medical University, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia;Newcastle University Medicine Malaysia, Kota Ilmu Educity@Iskandar, Nusajaya, Johor, 79200, Malaysia;Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Faculty of Medicine, Umm Al-Qura University, Makkah, Saudi Arabia

关键词: Malaysia;    Medical students;    Musculoskeletal pain;   

Others  :  1142378
DOI  :  10.1186/1756-0500-6-244

 received in 2012-10-31, accepted in 2013-06-25,  发布年份 2013

【 摘 要 】

Background

The main purpose of the study was to assess the prevalence, body distributions and factors associated with musculoskeletal pain (MSP) among medical students in a private Malaysian medical college.

Method

This cross-sectional study was conducted among 232 medical students in a private medical college using an online questionnaire. The questionnaire was a modified Standardized Nordic Questionnaire focused on neck, shoulder and low back pain in the past week and the past year.

Results

Two hundred and thirty two medical students responded to the questionnaire out of 642. Mean age was 20.7 ± 2.1 years. The majority were female (62.9%), Malay (80.6%) and in the preclinical years (72%). One hundred and six (45.7%) of all students had at least one site of MSP in the past week and 151 (65.1%) had at least one site of MSP in the past year. MSP in the past week was associated significantly with the academic year, (OR 2.0, 95% CI 1.15-3.67, P = 0.015), history of trauma (OR 2.6, 95% CI 1.2-5.3, P = 0.011), family history of MSP (OR 2.1, 95% CI 1.1-3.9, P = 0.023) and Body Mass Index (BMI) (P = 0.028). MSP in the past year was significantly associated with computer use (P = 0.027), daily hours of computer use (median ± IQR (5.0 ±3.0), history of trauma (OR 7.5, 95% CI 2.24-2.56, P < 0.01) and family history of MSP (OR 2.5, 95% CI 1.31-4.90, P = 0.006). On multivariate analysis, factors associated with MSP during the past week were a family history of MSP (p = 0.029) and BMI (p = 0.03). Factors associated with MSP during the past year were being in clinical years (p = 0.002, computer use (p = 0.038), and a history of trauma (p = 0.030).

Conclusion

MSP among medical students was relatively high, thus, further clinical assessment is needed in depth study of ergonomics. The study results indicate that medical school authorities should take measures to prevent MSP due to factors related to medical school. Students should make aware of importance of weight reduction to reduce MSP.

【 授权许可】

   
2013 Alshagga et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.

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