Introduction: Work ability is the relationship between a person’s personality, health, lifestyle, and employment-related factors. There are, however, few studies evaluating the variables linked to school teachers’ work ability. The purpose of this study was to assess school teachers’ work ability and the factors that affect it. Methods: A cross-sectional study of secondary school teachers was carried out. Sociodemographic characteristics, physical activity, body mass index, low back pain (LBP), psychological factors, work-related factors, health-related quality of life (HRQoL), and work ability were all collected through the questionnaire. The association between potential factors and job ability was investigated using ordinal logistic regression. Results were presented using odds ratios (OR) and 95 % confidence intervals (CI). Results: Of 1280, there were 1037 (81.0%) teachers who returned the questionnaire. The majority (71.9%) of the participants had moderate work ability, while 22.6% had good, and 5.5% had poor work ability. None of them were particularly had excellent work ability. The factors associated with increased work ability in the multivariable analysis were better HRQoL, namely physical (OR 1.11, 95%CI: 1.07, 1.15) and mental (OR 1.12, 95%CI: 1.06, 1.16) health and wellbeing. Conclusion: Positive associations exist between a teacher’s work ability and their physical and emotional well-being. Henceforth suggesting that these factors should be incorporated in workplace health promotion programs to maintain teachers’ work ability.

Knee pain (KP) is commonly reported among workers, especially those in non-managerial occupations such as carpenters, miners and construction workers. However, few studies have been conducted on KP among the teacher population. Therefore, this study aimed to determine the prevalence of KP among school teachers and to explore its association with individual characteristics, lifestyle, work factors, and presence of health conditions. A cross-sectional survey was conducted among teachers at public secondary schools in Selangor, Malaysia. A self-reported questionnaire was utilised to elicit information on socio-demographic characteristics, lifestyle, body mass index, work-related factors, and health-related quality of life (HRQoL). Associations with KP were analysed by logistic regression and reported as odds ratios (ORs) at a 95% confidence interval (CI). The results revealed that the 12-month prevalence of KP was 54.4%. The multivariate analysis showed that age (OR 3.55, 95% CI: 1.92–6.54), kneeling or squatting >1 hour in total (OR 1.48, 95% CI: 1.06–2.08), and physical HRQoL (OR 0.94, 95% CI: 0.92–0.96) were significantly associated with the occurrence of KP. In conclusion, the prevalence of KP among secondary school teachers is high. Age, work-related physical practises, and physical health were found to be significantly associated with KP. Therefore, appropriate strategies should be implemented to address these factors in order to reduce the occurrence of KP, especially among the older teacher population.
Body mass index