Prevalence and factors associated with musculoskeletal pain among hospital cleaning staff.
Emanuelli Mancio Ferreira da Luz, Oclaris Lopes Munhoz, Patrícia Bitencourt Toscani Greco and 3 others
PMID 39699353WHAT IT FOUND
Low back pain was the most common pain in the past seven days among 149 hospital cleaners (42.3%).
Neck pain was associated with dissatisfaction with staffing levels; shoulder and lower back pain with self-medication. These are associations, not proof of cause.
Key findings
01In the last seven days, lower back pain was reported by 63 of 149 cleaning workers (42.3%), the most common region.
02Neck pain in the last seven days was significantly associated with dissatisfaction with the number of people on the work schedule (p=0.019).
03Shoulder and lower back pain were associated with self-medication (p=0.026 and p=0.020), and ankles/feet pain was associated with sedentary lifestyle (p=0.041) and sleeping less than eight hours a day (p=0.039).
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTs
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What it does not show
The study is cross-sectional, so it cannot show whether the factors came before the pain or whether they caused it. Pain and possible risk factors were self-reported by questionnaire, without clinical examination or objective measures. The sample was limited to cleaning workers at one public university hospital in southern Brazil, hired by a third-party service provider. Workers on leave were excluded, and 3 of 152 did not participate, so the results may not represent all cleaning workers. Many body regions and variables were compared, so some significant associations may be chance findings.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that dissatisfaction with staffing, self-medication, sedentary lifestyle, sleep, alcohol, or smoking caused MSP. The study measured pain and these factors at the same time, and it tested no treatment.