Abstract:

It was aimed to determine the prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders among academicians and to evaluate their relationship with job related strain. The cross-sectional study was conducted face-to-face with 289 academicians at all campuses of a public university on 29.09.2017- 28.12.2017 by using the Descriptive Characteristics Form, Extended Nordic Musculoskeletal Disorders Questionnaire, Work-related Strain Form and the World Health Organization Psychosocial Well-being Scale, Data were analyzed by a computer program using descriptive statistics, T test, Chi-square test, correlation analysis and Binary Logistic Regression Analysis. The age of the participants was 39.09±1.02, 55.4% were women and 30.8% were research assistants. The academicians experienced the most common neck pain (34.9%) in the last month. Quality of life was worse in participants with musculoskeletal disorders; the average scores of work-related physical risk, work load and work-related strain were high (p<0.05). Work-related strain was higher in research assistants, in participants with neck, low back pain and tendency to somatization and increased health service use (p<0.05). Musculoskeletal disorders are common among academicians. Musculoskeletal disorders are high, quality of life is worse and using health services are more frequent in those with job-related strain. Working load should be reduced and because of physical and psychosocial risks, research assistants and the employees to being somatization tendency should be prioritized in employee health promotion programs.

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