Journal of Environmental and Occupational Medicine 2023;40(1):49-54

doi:10.11836/JEOM22298

Association between wrist pain and awkward postures among workers in 10 key industries

Guanlin LI 1 ; Xin SUN 2 ; Meibian ZHANG 2 ; Huadong ZHANG 3 ; Ruijie LING 4 ; Yimin LIU 5 ; Gang LI 6 ; Nengzhou CHEN 1 ; Zaoliang REN 7 ; Yan YIN 8 ; Hua SHAO 9 ; Hengdong ZHANG 10 ; Jiajie LI 1 ; Bing QIU 11 ; Dayu WANG 12 ; Qiang ZENG 13 ; Zhanhui LIANG 1 ; Rugang WANG 14 ; Jianchao CHEN 15 ; Danying ZHANG 16 ; Liangying MEI 17 ; Yongquan LIU 18 ; Jixiang LIU 19 ; Chengyun ZHANG 20 ; Tianlai LI 21 ; Ning JIA 2 ; Junyi WANG 1 ; Zhongxu WANG 2 ; Qingsong CHEN 1

Affiliations

+expand

Keywords

occupational population; wrist joint posture; wrist pain

Country

China

Language

Chinese

Abstract

Background Prolonged awkward postures during occupational activities can lead to excessive musculoskeletal load on the wrist of workers and symptoms such as wrist pain or discomfort. Objective To survey the prevalence of wrist pain among workers in 10 key industries and analyze its correlation with wrist working postures. Methods By using stratified cluster sampling method, workers from 10 key industries, such as footwear manufacturing industry, shipbuilding manufacturing industry, and automobile manufacturing industry, were selected from seven regions in North China, East China, Central China, South China, Southwest China, Northwest China, and Northeast China. The demographic information, wrist working postures, pain in wrist of the workers were collected through a cross-sectional survey. Pearson χ2 test was used to compare prevalence by selected factors, trend χ2 test for between group comparison, and unconditional logistic regression models for the association of wrist working postures with wrist pain. Results There were 64052 workers enrolled in this survey, and 56286 provided valid questionnaires (the effective rate was 87.8%). According to the survey, the prevalence of wrist pain was 23.3% (13112/56286), and the industries with higher prevalences were footwear manufacturing (27.1%, 1927/7106), automobile manufacturing (24.9%, 5378/21560), and shipbuilding and related equipment manufacturing (24.4%, 850/3488) industries. Finger pinching (OR=2.09, 95%CI: 1.95-2.24), frequent wrist bending (OR=2.03, 95%CI: 1.92-2.15), fixed wrist bending (OR=1.77, 95%CI: 1.69-1.85), wrist on hard edge (OR=1.34, 95%CI: 1.28-1.40), and arms over shoulders (OR=1.11, 95%CI: 1.05-1.17) increased the risk of reporting wrist pain. Conclusion Awkward postures are related to wrist pain among workers in selected 10 key industries. The related factors are wrist on hard edge, frequent wrist bending, finger pinching, fixed wrist bending, and arms over shoulders.