Volume 9 Issue 4 ( December 2022 )

Work related musculoskeletal problems are very common in industries operating their routine activities manually. These problems are the outcome of various strenuous tasks in awkward postures. A study in similar contrast was carried out for manual Indian dairy farm workers to investigate the prevalence of musculoskeletal problems and associated postural risk in this occupation. For this purpose a modified Nordic questionnaire was administered among 125 manual dairy farm workers. Binary logistic regression was applied to determine the association of postural risk factors and prevalence of musculoskeletal problems. As per the results, lower back pain was found to be the most common health issue (50.52%) mostly affecting workers engaged in fodder cutting (64.29%) and working in cowshed (63.16%). The age was significantly associated with musculoskeletal disorders in shoulders (OR=1.122, p=0.038), lower back area (OR=1.145, p=0.027) and also knees (OR=1.457, p=0.001). The workers with a balanced BMI ratio (20.1-25) were associated with very less neck disorders (OR=0.01, p=0.035) as compared to those who are underweight or overweight. The most strenuous task in dairy work is miking of cattle which was significantly associated with neck disorders (OR=5.731, , p=0.045) compared to other tasks. The height of an individual is also associated with heavy disorders in neck area of workers. With a proper ergonomic intervention, quality training of workers, use of proper hand tools and aids as well as modification in workstation design are needed to provide the more comfortable work life to dairy farm workers.

Keywords: Musculoskeletal disorders, MSDs, Dairy farming, Logistics regression, Risk factors