Relationship between Non-Specific Shoulder Pain and General Health Status in Tire production Industry Workers

Introduction: Shoulder is among the most common sites of musculoskeletal pain. Shoulder and neck pain has been widely investigated but its etiology still remains unknown. However, it appears to be multifactorial. Despite extensive studies on shoulder pain and its etiology, studies on the effect of general health status on non-specific shoulder pain are scarce. The aim of this study was to evaluate relationship between non-specific shoulder pain and general health status in Tire production industry workers.Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in a large tire factory during 2013-2015 and 497 male production line workers were evaluated. Characteristics of workers at baseline were evaluated using a questionnaire covering three main domains: Demographic and occupational characteristics, general health questionnaire (GHQ) and the job content questionnaire (JCQ). subjects were followed up for developing shoulder pain for one year.Results: At one year following the first visit, 159 (32%) subjects complained of unilateral or bilateral shoulder pain. T-test applied for quantitative variables revealed that the mean work experience, the general health questionnaire (GHQ) score and the quick exposure check (QEC) score were significantly higher in patients suffering from shoulder pain than healthy subjects (P<0.05). Pairwise comparison with the chi square test demonstrated that age, work experience, level of education, GHQ score and QEC score were significantly different between the two groups of with and without shoulder pain (P<0.05). However, based on the logistic regression analysis, only the GHQ score and age were significantly higher in subjects with shoulder pain compared to the no-pain group (P<0.05).Conclusions: Based on the results of this study general health status is important in non-specific shoulder pain and should be considered in evaluation of workers with shoulder pain.

Keywords:

Shoulder Pain , Ergonomics , General Health , Occupational Stress