WORK-RELATED MUSCULOSKELETAL DISORDERS FROM GENDER PERSPECTIVE AMONG STAFF OF BISHOP STUART UNIVERSITY

Abstract

In this work, various work-related musculoskeletal disorders were conscientiously studied from a gender perspective among the staff of Bishop Stuart University. A total of 112 staff members consented to participate in the study. 62 were females and 50 were males. The majority of our participants were within the age range of 30-39. The academic staff were 68 and the non-academic staff were 44. The Krejcie and Morgan Table of 1970 was used to determine the sample size. The supporting staff members, visiting lecturers, and part-time staff were excluded from the study. The study was cross sectional and the tool of data collection was Self structured, validated questionnaire. The data collection exercise lasted for 6 weeks, after which the collected data were analysed with SPSS version 25. The results revealed Low back pain, blurred vision, upper back pain, neck pain and shoulder/wrist pain were the common work-related musculoskeletal disorders suffered by the staff members. The study findings revealed that more male academic staff members suffered from work-related musculoskeletal disorders than their female counterparts. Conversely, the result of the study showed also that among the non-academic staff, there were more female sufferers of work-related musculoskeletal disorders than their male counterparts. Nevertheless, it was also noted that there was a concatenation of factors among other things that brought about the work-related musculoskeletal disorders, among staff members judging from Ergonomics standpoint. Such concatenation of factors was poor ergonomic knowledge application at workstation practices, lack of orientation on ergonomics, ergonomically designed working environment, etc.